Virgin Mobile now offers some free music streaming on selected post-paid plans

After their parent Optus began offering free music streaming on selected plans, Virgin Mobile is now also offering music streaming from selected services on their $40 and above post-paid plans.

Let’s be clear you still have to pay for the service, but any data you use for these services is not counted against your plan.

Just like Optus, Virgin Mobile will not count data used to stream music from Spotify, Pandora, Google Play Music, and iHeartRadio. However, unlike Optus who offers this to their Pre-Paid customers, you’ll need to be on a $40 or above post-paid plan.

The offer is open to both new and existing customers, but only until the 31st of January 2018. Existing customers will have to activate the offer through the My Account Rewards or contacting Virgin Mobile, but new customers will automatically have it switched on.

While streaming music is free from the services listed there are limits, Virgin Mobile is only covering data up to 512kbps – so if your music quality is higher, you’re out of luck. You also can’t stream music to another device using your phone as a hotspot.

While it’s nice to see free data, it does raise the question about net neutrality, what about all the other music streaming services – Apple Music etc. ?

In the US, carrier T-Mobile has been accused of skirting the net neutrality argument with their Binge On service which offers both Video and Data streaming from selected services without counting the data towards your monthly data cap. While on the surface it looks great, it would tend to stifle competition for services not included in the free streaming option.

If you are already a customer with the listed services, but it could end up being a slippery slope. Optus goes even further listing video services from Netflix and Presto for their customers, effectively screwing over Stan customers if they use that service.

Whether you agree with the implications or not, the music streaming option is now there for Virgin Mobile Post-Paid customers. If you’re on the plan or looking for a new one, head over to Virgin Mobile to check it out.