Sprint, a renowned American telecommunication company, has reportedly announced that it would pull the plug on decaying wireless communication brand, Virgin Mobile. Sprint has decided to move the customers of Virgin Mobile to Boost Mobile beginning in February.
This move is not a surprise since Sprint has been shutting distribution and marketing for Virgin Mobile for a while now. Recently in October, the company severed its partnership with Walmart as its distribution partner.
Since the termination of the Walmart partnership, Virgin Mobile was only purchasable via an online portal, since Walmart was the only brick-and-mortar sales distributor left, after previous decisions that were taken in 2019 to pull back the brand from Meijer and Best Buy stores.
The decision to stop Virgin Mobile comes at a time when T-Mobile and Sprint are in the last stretches their pending megamerger. Both companies are waiting for decision from Victor Marrero, U.S. District Judge. The verdict is regarding an antitrust trial that was brought on by an alliance of state attorneys general prosecuting to stop the deal.
The U.S. Department of Justice has already given a green signal to the merger. However, there are some conditions imposed by authority. These conditions include an agreement with Dish Network to procure Sprint’s prepaid assets, including Boost and Virgin Mobile as well as certain spectrum to provide the foundation the satellite TV provider needs to make an entry in the wireless industry.
As per credible sources, customers can still have their same phone and also keep paying the same price. By this, the user would still be on the Sprint network. However, the users might need to change the way they pay for Boost Mobile. This is because the company states that it won’t accept payments from PayPal accounts or for 45/90 Day top-ups.
This is still not the complete downfall of Virgin Mobile. While the company’s Australian counterpart is also presently being pulled back, Virgin Mobile is still a renowned cellular brand across Sir Richard Branson’s native UK.
Source credit: https://www.fiercewireless.com/wireless/sprint-pulls-plug-virgin-mobile
