Virgin Mobile (LG Optimus V) vs. AT&T GoPhone (LG Thrive)

[pierretong]

Hey! I'm going to be going to college this upcoming fall in Clemson, South Carolina and am looking at a cheap android cell phone option and Virgin Mobile and the LG Optimus V came up as a possible option. I am currently on an AT&T GoPhone plan and saw that they have the LG Thrive android phone but the data packages look ridiculous ($25 for 500 MB, $10 for 100 MB, $5 for 10 MB) while Virgin Mobile is unlimited for $25. A couple of questions though:

1. I've seen a lot of complaints about data outages/unreliable service from Virgin Mobile. Am I going to be ripping my hair off and spending 24/7 calling customer service? (aka how reliable is it?) And if anybody has any experience with using Virgin Mobile in upstate South Carolina, any comments would be great. The coverage map at my college area says "Best" on VirginMobile USA. Is the map accurate?

2. How much data am I going to need? I am on a college campus so there is wi-fi most of the time (not everywhere I go but most places). I check facebook, twitter, email and sometimes watch youtube videos.

3.Would it be better off to start on the AT&T GoPhone data plan and see how much data I actually use since AT&T has better coverage? or vice versa and start off with Virgin Mobile? What would you do in this situation?

Thanks a lot for any comments!

 

[cpht]

You pay up front for the phone, so switching would only cost more.

 

[insertusername]

You won't be ripping your hair out with Virgin Mobile, but sometimes data will not work (but it can be fixed by putting it into airplane mode and back, or call VM). It runs on Sprint's 3G/EVDO network, so it's pretty good. I would certainly go with the VM phone simply because for a total of $25, you get much more than you do with AT&T.

 

[micahdiablo]

Idk about south Carolina but I live in north Carolina and it's decent.

I don't have data issues. Sometimes it seems like there is a slight text delay but nothing major.

35 bucks a month gets you 300 minutes(no nights and weekend) and unlimited text and data is great.

Even if you need unlimited mins you might as well go with VM because everything is unlimited and 5 dollars cheaper