Virgin Mobile brings out pay-as-you-go MiFi

If you’ve ever wanted to have a backup Internet connection that you don’t have to pay a monthly fee for, Virgin Mobile has just the thing you’ve been looking for.

Virgin Mobile, which was acquired by Sprint earlier this year, has launched the Novatel MiFi with a brand new prepaid broadband service.

Virgin Mobile phones, like other prepaid wireless services, let users make calls only if they purchase phone cards that, when activated, add minutes to the phone. The same concept is at play with the MiFi system.

Users can go out to the store and buy Broadband2Go cards from Virgin Mobile, which are added to the MiFi service. The cards are available in the following increments:

– $10: 100 MB

– $20: 300 MB

– $40: 1 GB

– $60: 5 GB

The MiFi is small enough as to fit into a shirt pocket. Users can simply connect to the MiFi just like they would any other Wi-Fi access point.

The device picks up a 3G data connection and converts it into a signal that can be used by a laptop, iPad, computer, etc. The actual device costs $149.