Virgin Mobile to offer free music streaming service Oct. 9 on data plans
T-Mobile US is set to be joined in the free streaming music space by Sprint prepaid brand Virgin Mobile USA, which announced that beginning Oct. 9 it will support free streaming of music from select online content providers.
The service will be made available to Virgin Mobile customers on rate plans that include cellular data access, which begin at $35 per month. The streaming music service will not detract from a customer’s allotted data bucket. Streaming content partners include IHeartRadio, Pandora and Slacker Radio.
Virgin Mobile noted customers will need to be connected to the Sprint-provided 3G or LTE network to access the streaming music service and that the service does not include premium subscriptions to the streaming content providers.
T-Mobile US launched its Music Freedom service in mid-2014, announcing partnerships with a handful of online streaming music providers to provide access to content without detracting from a customer’s data bucket. That initial launch was targeted at the carrier’s “unlimited” data plans, with customers on tiered plans charged $4 per month for access to the service. T-Mobile US eventually began offering the music service free to all of its postpaid customers, expanded the number of content providers and more recently began allowing for access in Canada and Mexico.
Iain Gillott, founder and president of iGR, noted Music Freedom customers could be streaming more than 1 gigabyte of free content each month depending on the quality of the music content.
Sprint last month boosted the amount of unthrottled data for Virgin Mobile customers, pushing the $35 per month plan from 250 megabytes to 1 GB; the $45 per month plan from 1 GB to 3 GB; and the $55 per month plan from 3 GB to 8 GB. All plans include unlimited domestic calling and text messaging from Sprint’s native network.
The carrier’s data plans provide unthrottled 3G and LTE speeds where available, before reducing speeds to 2G levels once the data limit is reached. The updated data plans also can take advantage of the recently launched extra-cost data buckets, which allow customers to add either 1 GB or 2 GB of unthrottled data access for $5 per GB.
Virgin Mobile USA recently came out on top in terms of customer care among prepaid providers in the latest J.D. Power survey, scoring significantly higher than T-Mobile US’ MetroPCS brand, AT&T Mobility’s Cricket service and its own Boost Mobile sister brand.
Sprint’s prepaid brands, which include Virgin Mobile USA, Boost Mobile, Sprint Prepaid and Assurance Wireless, lost a collective 366,000 net customers during the carrier’s most recent quarter. The results were an improvement over the previous year when those prepaid brands lost 542,000 customers.
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