Work At Home Pedia

It’s finally here. Virgin Mobile’s anticipated Nationwide 3G Broadband services, Broadband2Go, for those who don’t want a contract, but need the benefits of a high-speed Internet option. In order to use Virgin Mobile’s Broadband2Go service, you’ll need to purchase their MC760 Broadband2Go device, because Virgin Mobile’s Broadband2Go service only works with its proprietary broadband device. But hey, there are no month-to-month contract requirements and there are no activation fees. Virgin Mobile’s Nationwide 3G Broadband services was put together in conjunction with San Diego based, Novatel Wireless, a leading provider of worldwide, wireless mobile communications solutions.  

Virgin Mobile’s Broadband2Go operates on Sprint’s Nationwide Network using the MC760 Broadband2Go device, reportedly, the world’s smallest EV-DO Rev A modem. The appeal of a Prepaid Mobile Internet Device is long overdue in the prepaid wireless market. Students and members of the mobile workforce, who like the ability to access the Internet from the comfort of whatever location they happen to be at, without having to seek out a wi-fi location is enough reason to purchase the MC760 Broadband2Go device.

The MC760 Broadband2Go device is tiny, but big in features. A little over two inches long and weighing less than an ounce it sports a microSD slot with a capacity of up to 16 GB, perfect for transferring or storing important media files. The microSD card is not included in the purchase price, but freely available online and offline.

There is a dual-band, internal antennae to help pick up the weakest signal and an external antennae made available as an option. In order to use the MC760 Broadband2Go device, all you need is an Internet-Capable device that has a Windows Operating System, either Windows XP or Windows Vista and a USB Type-A port and you’re ready to browse the Web.

For those of you who purchased a Netbook or other ultra-portable Internet-Capable device with a USB Type-A port and don’t have an optical drive, such as CD/DVD Player or Recorder, don’t fret, because the MC760 Broadband2Go device comes preloaded with software that launches the moment you plug it into your USB port. So, you don’t need an optical drive to use it.

For you Mac lovers out there, you can get your MC760 Broadband2Go device configured with the drivers you need from Novatel, to connect Mac’s Operating System that is 10.3.9 or higher. The MC760 Broadband2Go device from Novatel will have the Mac drivers preloaded with a Mac User Guide included. The downside for Mac Users is that you’ll need to activate your Broadband2Go device from a computer that has the Windows XP or Windows Vista Operating System. Virgin Mobile is working on a way to have Mac Users activate directly from their computer in the future.

If, you have a Linux Operating System on your computer, the MC760 Broadband2Go device can be configured with drivers to run on Linux, but like Mac Users, you will have to get the drivers at Novatel and activate your Broadband2Go device on a Windows XP or Windows Vista Operating System.

Beginning in late June 2009, you can purchase Virgin Mobile’s, MC760 Broadband2Go device exclusively at your local Best Buy Mobile for $149.99, with no activation fee or annual contract. Virgin Mobile’s Broadband2Go will be on a pay-as-you-go business model. You can purchase data in increments of 100 MB to 1GB. For example, you can use your debit, credit care, or Virgin’s Prepaid, TopUp Card to purchase 250 MB for $20. The 250 MB of data is good for thirty days and is roughly equivalent to about 12 hours of Internet surfing.

You can choose from other Virgin Mobile data plans in increments of $10, $40 and $60. You can also use Virgin Mobile’s Prepaid TopUp Cards to purchase additional data upgrades. Users won’t have to worry about how much data they have left, because the MC760 Broadband2Go device comes with an onboard, real-time, usage meter. There is even a web-based, Broadband2Go account page that users can use to see detail information about video, email and other usage.

A couple of things to lookout for is your daily data usage. Using Virgin Mobile’s Broadband2Go Data Usage estimates, 1 hour of surfing the web is about 20 MB, while 1 minute of streaming video is about 4 MB. So, you may want to hold off on watching any video while on the Prepaid Internet Platform. Comparing web surfing for an hour with checking about 100 emails without attachment, the Broadband2Go Service comes in at a respectable 1 MB.

For the hardcore Internet surfer, you may want to seek out your local wi-fi, but if you’re insistent on mobile video streaming, Virgin Mobile offers the $60 data card, which will get you 1 GB, good for 30 days. With 1 GB, you get up to 50 hours of web browsing, or 4 hours of video or the ability to check up to 100,000 emails. If, you need to top-off, you can purchase a $10 Virgin Mobile TopUp Card good for 10 days, that will give you 5 hours of web browsing, or 25 minutes of video or the ability to check 10,000 emails without attachments.

Also, watch out for phantom Internet usage in the background while you’re sitting idle or between surfing events or getting up to get coffee, going to the bathroom, etc. Windows could be giving you one of their infamous updates of gosh-knows how many MB’s and that’ll be deducted from your Virgin Mobile Broadband Account if your device is active in your computer. You may want to elect to turn off your Automatic Windows Updates while using your Broadband2Go device and choose to do your updates when your computer is connected to wi-fi or your home network. While you’re at it, you may want to turn off, automatic updates for any software installed on your computer while using Broadband2Go to avoid depleting your MB’s prematurely.

You can use your Broadband2Go while you’re on the go, so long as you have a wireless signal. You don’t have to stay put in one place. When you move, your wireless signal moves with you. Keep in mind that wherever you have a wireless signal, you have wireless Internet. There are no roaming charges. If, your sitting in one place for awhile, heck, you can even connect the MC760 Broadband2Go device to your desktop’s USB and browse the Internet. This is great for folks who want the comfort of a desktop, but want Internet surfing options. The Broadband2Go device is perfect for full-timers who RV or live on a boat and a big plus for truck drivers and over-the-road, sales people.

While there is a time period in which to use the data plan, for example, a $10 data plan is good for 10 days, and so forth, buy your Broadband2Go account service is good for one year since your initial activation or the from the last time you redeemed a data plan. So, it’ll probably be a good idea to purchase your Broadband2Go device and your data plan as a Virgin Mobile TopUP Card and activate it when you are ready to surf the Internet, because your time period begins the moment you activate your service and redeem a data plan TopUp Card, or purchase a data plan online using a debit or credit card.

Thankfully, Virgin Mobile was considered enough to include a “disconnect and reconnect button,” so that Broadband2Go Users can manage their data usage while multi-tasking. If, you go over the amount of data that you paid for, or you run out of data before the number of days of usage expires, you don’t have to worry about getting charged for going over. Your Internet service will simply stop working. There are no gotchas or hidden fees with Virgin Mobile’s Broadband2Go. Your Internet service will just be blocked until you use your debit or credit card or Virgin Mobile’s TopUp Card to get more data by calling them, or going to your account page from another computer. You can also purchase TopUp Cards at Best Buy or just about any convenience store or gas station nationwide.

For those of you who may already have a prepaid account with Virgin Mobile Wireless for your cell phone, you won’t be able to use your use your cellular account to pay for data service with Broadband2Go, as they are two separate accounts with Virgin Mobile. Another bummer is that the MC760 Broadband device doesn’t support wi-fi. I guess that really isn’t so bad, considering just about every Internet-capable device with a USB port, has a wi-fi card installed or the ability to attach a wi-fi card. It would have been nice to switch seamlessly between the Broadband2Go device and wi-fi, but you can still do it manually if your computer has wi-fi, by just clicking on the “disconnect button” on the Broadband2Go device and enabling your computer’s wireless device. Until the fingers meet the keyboard again, Take Care!