Watch out for rising text prices at Virgin Mobile

AT&T’s rate hike to 20 cents, which was followed closely by T-Mobile’s. We also learned recently that carriers are greatly overcharging for single messages, with the presumption that they’re trying to guarantee revenue in the form of message bundles. As Ian points out, we’re about to see the same from Virgin Mobile. Their rates are rumored to be on the uptick to 15 cents each. Bummer. As with the T-Mobile plan, there might be a grandfather clause which will allow current users to keep the 10 cent a la carte rate for a bit longer. That won’t be forever, though. Soon light texters will have to feel the burden of an extra nickel per message sent and received. This might cause more people to sign up for Virgin’s 30 message plan, which costs $2 per month. Is this going to keep anyone from using Virgin Mobile? I always wonder what the negative side of a price increase is for the carrier. Yes, they’ll generate more revenue per text, plus gain revenue via bundles, but what will they lose not only in current subscriber numbers, but in potential subscribers? That we’ll probably never know. ]]>