Virgin Mobile Broadband To Go ...... anyone ever use it at a Disney Resort?

[BazzaS]

Is Virgin MiFi locked to a provider? It's all a bit confusing to me!!
I'll be bringing my macbook & iPhone to Florida. I'll have no land line for 2 weeks of my trip (will be in Florida a month) So iPhone will be my life line,lol.

My thought is that I could carry the MiFi in my purse when I'm out, and be able to sign up for skype to make & recieve phone calls avioding the dreaded roaming and long distance charges. As well as having wifi for my lap top duting my trip.

Thank you for the WiFi 101 tutorials for us not as tecky people

The virgin MiFi will be locked to Virgin. I'm not sure the Virgin service will be "fast enough" (give enough bandwidth) to allow Skype at good enough quality, based on the speeds I've seen.

In fairness, all the networks quote speeds as 'optimal' / maximums, and 'real-life' speeds will depend on the theroretical maximum, the signal locally, whether one is indoors or outdoors, and how many people are sharing the cell tower.

If your iPhone is unlocked, would you consider buying a local pre-paid SIM?. I can't PM yet, but with details of your iPhone's bands and if it is unlocked, I could suggest a network you might use. As this is straying away from broadband at Disney (let alone Virgin Broadband at Disney), despite how kind the OP on this thread has been, perhaps you'd start your own new thread and pm me, and I'll try to help there

 

[Cdn Friends of Pooh]

Is Virgin MiFi locked to a provider? It's all a bit confusing to me!!
I'll be bringing my macbook & iPhone to Florida. I'll have no land line for 2 weeks of my trip (will be in Florida a month) So iPhone will be my life line,lol.

My thought is that I could carry the MiFi in my purse when I'm out, and be able to sign up for skype to make & recieve phone calls avioding the dreaded roaming and long distance charges. As well as having wifi for my lap top duting my trip.

Thank you for the WiFi 101 tutorials for us not as tecky people

Just like our phones up here are locked to either Bell, Rogers or Telus, it's the same in the US ... so yes, the MiFi is locked to Virgin - that's why you need to sign up for the monthly plan with Virgin. You can still keep the MiFi in your purse and sign up for Skype to make & receive calls and have it for wifi on your laptop - but it will all be done on the Virgin network. Clear as mud??

 

[Sue M]

Just like our phones up here are locked to either Bell, Rogers or Telus, it's the same in the US ... so yes, the MiFi is locked to Virgin - that's why you need to sign up for the monthly plan with Virgin. You can still keep the MiFi in your purse and sign up for Skype to make & receive calls and have it for wifi on your laptop - but it will all be done on the Virgin network. Clear as mud??

yup! got it!

 

[Sue M]

The virgin MiFi will be locked to Virgin. I'm not sure the Virgin service will be "fast enough" (give enough bandwidth) to allow Skype at good enough quality, based on the speeds I've seen.

In fairness, all the networks quote speeds as 'optimal' / maximums, and 'real-life' speeds will depend on the theroretical maximum, the signal locally, whether one is indoors or outdoors, and how many people are sharing the cell tower.

If your iPhone is unlocked, would you consider buying a local pre-paid SIM?. I can't PM yet, but with details of your iPhone's bands and if it is unlocked, I could suggest a network you might use. As this is straying away from broadband at Disney (let alone Virgin Broadband at Disney), despite how kind the OP on this thread has been, perhaps you'd start your own new thread and pm me, and I'll try to help there

Sadly, my phone is locked. After contract is up, and I get a new phone, I'm having this one unlocked & use it for travel.
May just buy a cheap pay as you go phone down there, for talking, phoning home, etc and use MiFi for internet & data.

 

[Cdn Friends of Pooh]

Hey Sue (and any other Canadians looking to get the Virgin Mobile Mifi) - Here at the Poly right now ... picked up the Virgin Mobile MiFi ... just wanted to share some important info with you

1) WalMart may not have the device in stock (we got ours at Best Buy Mobile in the Florida Mall as the WalMart we went to didn't have it and actually didn't even know what it was)

2) You will need to buy the Virgin Mobile Top Up Cards (I think they're available at Best Buy Mobile but we didn't think we'd need them so had to get them at Walgreens). Unfortunately the Virgin Mobile website you use to set up your mifi device doesn't take Canadian credit cards, nor can they take them over the phone.

3) Once you've added the top up cards to your account, you still may have to phone Virgin Mobile to get them to set up your plan - we tried to do it online but it kept telling us we had "insufficient money" in our account when it plainly showed we had the $50 in our account.

We finally got it up and running and it works wonderfully Will try it out at the parks later tonight and let you know how it goes.

 

[Sue M]

Thanks for the info. How did you set everything up if they don't take Canadian Credit Cards? Will Best Buy help set it up?
I look forward to hearing how it works in the parks.

Enjoy the Poly, what longhouse are you in? We were in Tokelau. Loved watching Wishes from the beach

 

[BazzaS]

Thanks for the info. How did you set everything up if they don't take Canadian Credit Cards? Will Best Buy help set it up?
I look forward to hearing how it works in the parks.

Enjoy the Poly, what longhouse are you in? We were in Tokelau. Loved watching Wishes from the beach

I got my MC760 reactivated from outside the USA by phoning Virgin Customer Services (its 'number' had expired after over a year of non-use).

The initial $10 top-up I got online from Walmart. I got around the "non-US" card problem by paying by paypal, and Walmart emailed the top-up PIN to me, though it did take about an hour to come through.

I then added the later $50 once I knew the service did what we wanted, as a top-up card bought in store : At first the balance didn't show on the account even though it said top-up accepted, but logging out and then in again solved that, and allowed me to buy the $50, 1 month service plan.

I hope these posts are helpful ; I'm not a fan of "padding posts" just to reach the 10 posts mark so I can send PM's, so I'm hoping to reach 10 useful posts soon

 

[Cdn Friends of Pooh]

Thanks for the info. How did you set everything up if they don't take Canadian Credit Cards? Will Best Buy help set it up?
I look forward to hearing how it works in the parks.

Enjoy the Poly, what longhouse are you in? We were in Tokelau. Loved watching Wishes from the beach

No I don't believe Best Buy Mobile will help you set it up as it's done online through your laptop (all the information on how to is included on a card in your package). I'm not sure if it was just a glitch that the website indicated we had insufficient money in our account after I entered the top up cards to the account - but calling the toll free number got it fixed quickly. Unfortunately we weren't able to use PayPal either (it wasn't an option in the drop down menu of choices to use to pay for the monthly plan). There are different options - Credit, Debit or top up cards ... because they don't take Canadian CC, I chose top up cards. When you purchase the top up cards, there are numbers on your receipt that you enter into the website.

Once we activated it (done through your laptop), it worked wonderfully, although my DH had to keep reminding me to turn the mifi off so we wouldn't drain the battery (there's no "manual" with the device so only figured out that you can configure the device to shut down after a certain period of time after we got home and downloaded the manual from the website). It actually worked much better when we were at Disney than when we were visiting friends who were staying on I-drive

We were CL in the Hawaii building

 

[BazzaS]

Unfortunately we weren't able to use PayPal either (it wasn't an option in the drop down menu of choices to use to pay for the monthly plan). There are different options - Credit, Debit or top up cards ... because they don't take Canadian CC, I chose top up cards. When you purchase the top up cards, there are numbers on your receipt that you enter into the website.

When I used paypal, it was to buy the "top-up card" online from Walmart (online), rather than using PayPal directly on the Virgin site.

Walmart then emailed me the PIN, which allowed me to enter it as a top-up on the Virgin site.

 

[Sue M]

Thanks for the updates.

 

[Cdn Friends of Pooh]

When I used paypal, it was to buy the "top-up card" online from Walmart (online), rather than using PayPal directly on the Virgin site.

Walmart then emailed me the PIN, which allowed me to enter it as a top-up on the Virgin site.

Ah that makes more sense!