Virgin Mobile Debuts $12 Single-App Data Plans

Do you love having access to social media on your smartphone, but don’t bother to venture outside of Facebook? Sprint’s Virgin Mobile brand has introduced the perfect smartphone plan for both 74-year-olds and 14-year-olds: cheap mobile Internet access that limits you to a single service.

The new plan, Virgin Mobile Custom, will be available at Walmart beginning next Saturday, August 9. The plan lets each user control which services they have from their own phones, and also allows the person who is paying the bill control which services each phone can access from an app. The person controlling others’ services doesn’t have to be a Virgin Mobile customer.

Each line on the Custom plan starts at $7, which allows for 20 voice minutes and 20 text messages. From there, custom plans are available, all the way up to unlimited voice and text for $35.

It’s the data plan that caught our attention, though. Right now, customers have a choice of four apps, unlimited access to which will cost around $12 each. Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Pinterest are the most popular social media services, according to Virgin Mobile USA parent company Sprint. The company may expand access to other apps if the custom plans take off.

If this catches on, it could only lead to more people commenting on Facebook headlines without bothering to click through to the original story. For that reason, we disapprove.

Virgin Mobile USA Launches Virgin Mobile Custom – Fully Customizable Cell Phone Plan with Rich Parental Controls [Press Release]

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