(Roberto Machado Noa / Contributor)
Virgin Mobile's 18-year run in the US is over. The prepaid arm of Sprint just told its customers that it will be moving their accounts over to Boost Mobile, presumably in preparation for spinning Boost off after Sprint's merger with T-Mobile.
As the two brands operate on the same network, Virgin says the transition will be smooth. But as the two brands have different billing systems, I'd still check my bill closely in February and March to make sure there are no screw-ups or surprises. The one major change is that Boost does not support PayPal or 45/90 day payment plans, so people using those payment methods will have to choose a different one.
"In most instances, your existing account will be transferred to Boost Mobile with your device, and a comparable or better Boost Mobile service plan at no extra cost to you. You will keep your phone number, and your monthly payment date will remain the same as long as you continue on-time payments until the transfer to Boost Mobile is complete," Virgin says on its support page.
If the Sprint/T-Mobile merger clears, Boost will be sold to Dish Networks, so what happens after that is anyone's guess. Dish has a seven-year agreement to use the merged Sprint/T-Mobile network, but prices, service plans, and device lineups could all change.
The Sprint/T-Mobile merger has been approved by the federal government, but it is currently trapped in a lawsuit by state attorneys general trying to stop it on competitive grounds; closing arguments are scheduled for Jan. 15, although there is no hard date for the judge to make a decision.
Other "Virgin Mobile" brands in other countries are unaffected, as they're run by other companies—in Canada, for instance, Virgin Mobile is run by Bell, and in the UK it's run directly by Virgin Media.
Virgin Mobile USA launched in June 2002 as a virtual operator borrowing Sprint's network; it was absorbed into Sprint in 2009. Traditionally, Virgin appealed more to younger, upscale consumers such as college students who didn't have the established credit for postpaid plans, as opposed to Boost Mobile's focus on inner-city locations.
The company also initially had retail distribution through Virgin Megastores, which at their height in the early 2000s had 23 retail locations in major US cities. Virgin Megastores in the US were shut down in 2009 as the wireless brand was sold to Sprint.
The company did some innovative things over the years, such as offering extremely tweakable "custom" service plans, but it always had trouble with device selection and differentiating itself with rates.
Virgin made a disastrous choice in 2017 to market itself as an "iPhone-only" carrier, though, causing massive confusion among its Android-heavy user base and doing a poor job of attracting new iPhone customers.
Selling Boost, and its customer base, to Dish became part of T-Mobile and Sprint's plan to get their merger approved. However, Mobile World Live points out that T-Mobile US COO Mike Sievert had previously said that both Virgin and Boost would survive as they target different customer segments.
Virgin says its customers will join Boost in February.