A First Look at Virgin Mobile

by The Prophet  (a.k.a, "Please don't call me the Virgin Surgeon" TProphet)

Overview

Virgin Mobile USA is the first foray by Richard Branson's Virgin Group into the North American wireless market.

It is also Virgin's first experience with a CDMA system.  The rest of Virgin's worldwide markets utilize GSM technology.  While Virgin Mobile would have preferred to partner with a GSM carrier, the local GSM carriers (Cingular and T-Mobile) already had their own prepaid offerings and weren't interested in selling them to Virgin Mobile.  Additionally, Virgin wanted a strong nationwide network, and none of the GSM carriers offer one.

Fortunately for Virgin, Sprint PCS was looking to get out of the prepaid market, but had the network capacity and technology to serve prepaid customers.  In a $300 million joint venture between Virgin and Sprint, Virgin Mobile USA was formed, resulting in an overlay wireless network with a myriad of opportunities for the curious phreak.

Virgin Mobile operations are scattered hither and yon across several companies and geographic locations.

Their headquarters are in Warren Township, New Jersey.  Calls are carried over the Sprint PCS network.  Billing is handled by California-based Siebel Systems, and data processing is handled by EDS at their Sacramento offices.

A software package developed by Telcordia (formerly Bellcore) is used at the MTSO layer for prepaid billing.  Customer service calls are taken in Spokane, Washington by a firm called the ICT Group (who, incidentally, also take calls for America Online).

They use BEA/WebLogic to track all (and I mean all) the people you call, the VirginXtras you use, how you pay your bill, etc.), your interactions with Virgin Mobile - but only after you get past Amber, the Interactive Voice Response (IVR) gatekeeper system, which is driven (poorly) by ScreamingMedia and BeVocal software.

As you may have guessed, outsourcing is the order of the day at Virgin Mobile.

The Phones

As of this writing, Virgin Mobile customers can choose from two Kyocera phone models, the 2119 and 2255.

The 2119 version is marketed as the "Party Animal" and the 2255 version is marketed as the "Super Model."  The phones are similar, with the more expensive 2255 version offering a bright blue display, additional ring tones, and a few other bells and whistles.

The phones are bundled with a CD sampler of songs from the Virgin Music label, an instruction booklet, and a sheet of stickers that I imagine Virgin Mobile thinks are zany and fun.  Most of the stickers have something to do with the Virgin logo, or are simply Virgin advertisements.

The firmware, which in Kyocera phones is flashable, is different from that found on the Sprint PCS models of these phones.  In addition to providing unlimited Wireless Web access to all the news and information that a user in Virgin Mobile's 15-30 year old demographic could ever need (that is, MTV news and information about the Virgin record label's music catalog - yes, they really are that condescending), along with other "VirginXtras" features such as "blind date" calls, where you can schedule an automated callback to your wireless phone (the premise being you could schedule a callback to occur during a date, then more easily fabricate an excuse to leave).  You can also check the remaining balance on your account, buy more airtime, etc.

Unlike the Sprint PCS firmware's version of Wireless Web, you are limited to visiting a hard-coded list of URLs that Virgin Mobile has provided - nearly all of which promote other Virgin products.  If you were thinking of getting around this annoying limitation by purchasing a data cable for your laptop, don't bother.  That functionality is also disabled in the firmware.

Additionally, the PRL is locked to "Sprint PCS Only" mode (although this is hidden from the user), and you don't even have the option to select analog roaming.  If you were somehow able to get around that, roaming is also disabled in the Sprint PCS billing system for Virgin Mobile ESN/MIN pairs.  The inability to use an available analog signal, even to call 911 (which is always a free call), is a serious limitation.

Billing

New Virgin Mobile phones come with $10 worth of airtime, and you can get an additional $5 for activating your phone on their website.

Calling time is purchased through the use of "top-up" cards, which are sold at Virgin retailers, or by using a credit card.  You can top-up your account over the phone or via the Virgin Mobile website.  For each $50 purchased in any one month, Virgin Mobile provides $10 in bonus airtime.  Additionally, a $10 one-time bonus is granted for registering your credit card number with them online.

Most voice calls are billed at 25 cents per minute for the first ten minutes per day.  Domestic long distance is included.  On the Virgin Mobile network, a day begins at midnight and ends at 11:59 pm.  For the first ten minutes of calling time each day you are billed 25 cents per minute.  After that, you are billed ten cents per minute for the rest of the day.  These rates apply to both incoming and outgoing calls, and are the same regardless of the time of day.  International long distance service is available, but is disabled by default and very expensive.

Incoming calls that are transferred to voicemail are free.  Outgoing calls to your voicemail from your wireless phone are normally billed airtime at the voice call rate.  However, dialing 11 + NPA + Your Virgin Mobile Number allows you to check your voicemail for free in some markets.

This is how incoming calls that are transferred to voicemail appear on your call detail, so it appears to be a billing loophole.  You can also check your voicemail using a land line without being billed airtime, by calling the NPA-NXX of your Virgin Mobile number, then replacing the last four digits with 6245 (MAIL).  Simply follow the voice prompts to log on to your mailbox.

CDMA data service, which Sprint PCS markets as Wireless Web or PCS Vision, is unlimited and free on Virgin Mobile.  Unfortunately, it's not very useful because of the limitations described above.  As usual, you get what you pay for.

There are no credit checks, and no identification is required to establish service with Virgin Mobile.  To activate service, you need to give them a name and service address, but this can be anything you like.  Be aware, however, that if you want to pay with a credit card, you need to provide the name and billing address on the card.

Virgin Mobile vs. Sprint PCS

If you have a Sprint PCS phone, you cannot activate it on the Virgin Mobile billing system, or vice versa.  Each carrier requires the ESN of your phone to be in their database; otherwise, they cannot activate it.

If you call Sprint PCS customer service for assistance, they will have never heard of your phone number before and won't be able to pull up your account.  Technicians at the Tier 2 level and above can pull up your account, but they'll get the Virgin Mobile national account (which is administered by someone named Amber Maxwell - my voice sounds like it belongs to a disgruntled lumberjack, so they were reasonably skeptical about me being a woman).

Unfortunately, the above means that Sprint PCS won't readily perform services such as resetting your browser's client certificate, performing Over-the-Air (OTA) updates of the PRL in your phone, or telling you how much Virgin Mobile actually pays for that expensive service you're using.

Fun Numbers to Call (From Your Virgin Mobile Handset)

*4, *VM  - Virgin Mobile "Central Intelligence" (free).  Note that the *4 usage differs from Sprint PCS accounts, where the feature code is used to check account usage.

*3  - Sprint PCS SpeedPay billing system.  This will not work with a Virgin Mobile account, and Virgin Mobile charges you to call it (this is probably a bug in their billing system).

*2  - Sprint Customer Service (free).  They can't tell you anything about your Virgin Mobile phone or account.  They can only provide general help with the Sprint network or transfer you to a technician.

*72, *73, *74  - Call Forwarding.  This service is not available with Virgin Mobile.

*67  - Caller ID block (free).  You can also request a permanent caller ID block through Virgin Mobile "Central Intelligence."

*82  - Selectively unblocks your Caller ID if you've permanently blocked it.

Fun Programming Codes (On Your Virgin Mobile Handset)

Use these codes at your own risk.  While you are unlikely to physically damage your handset, improper settings can cause it to work intermittently or not at all.

After entering the code you want to use, press OK to proceed.

111111  - Options Menu.  This displays a menu of available options.

868666  - Programming Lock Code.  This is also called the Master Subsidy Lock (MSL) and is used for NAM programming and firmware updates.  Unlike Sprint PCS phones, where this is individually configured for each phone, the MSL is the same for most Virgin Mobile phones.

040793  - Field Debug Code.  The field debug menu has several fun options, including changing the voice codec used, displaying information about signal strength, and more.