I used to have Virgin, and it was decent (until I started talking lots)... but I think the jig is almost up.

If you compare rates with T-Mobile To Go (T-Mobile's prepay service), Virgin is considerably more expensive in most cases. Virgin's rates end up working out to 15-20 cents a minute for most folks, while with T-M To Go, if you're willing to buy minutes in $50 or $100 chunks, the rates are 10-12 cents a minute... quite a bit better.

And even when it comes to very low usage (i.e. the'glovebox special'), which is one of Virgin's strong points, T-M TG is still a good deal.

For example, the $100 card with T-M To Go gives you 1000 minutes, and those minutes last one full year. Thus, if you buy one $100 T-M To Go card, you're current for one year off just that, since all it takes to stay current with them is maintain a balance above zero.

Thus, your minimum with TMTG works out to about $8/month. Virgin, in comparison, requires you to 'top up' $20 every 3 months, which works out to about $7/month (and with T-M TG, their $8/month 'minimum' gives you a lot more minutes than Virgin's minimum does... about 80 minutes a month vs about 40-50 for Virgin's minimum).

So T-M TG's minimums thus are nearly as low as Virgin's, and, if you do any real TALKING, you'll get more minutes for the same money with T-M TG.

Say you have $20 a month to drop on your prepay service... that'll buy you about 120 minutes a month with Virgin. With T-M TG (aqain, if you stick with the $50 or $100 cards), $20/month buys you 160-200 minutes a month. A significantly better deal.

Also have to say that the TMTG phones seem to be a bit cheaper & better than what Virgin currently offers... they have some pretty nice Nokias for $40-50 after mail-in rebate. And coverage? Well, since you're only getting the digital portion of Sprint's network coverage on Virgin (no analog), coverage is about the same as TMTG- mainly urban areas and along major freeways.

Before you scream that I'm a T-Mobile fanboy of some sort, I actually use Verizon, not T-Mobile, and I'm on a contract, not prepay anymore. But I started with Virgin, and while I liked them back then, I'm suprised that they're still offering the same old tired deal that I had back then, even in the face of increasing competition.

Maybe the good folks at Virgin will finally wake up and give you guys a better deal if enough of you shop around more. 'Cause if you do take the time to compare, ya probably won't go with Virgin these days. Have fun goin' cellular.