Virgin Mobile customers in the US are trying to get wireless phone service from a new carrier

Sprint, which owns and operates Virgin Mobile, has posted a notice on Virgin's website that it is discontinuing discounted wireless service Some Virgin Mobile customers may have already received this news via text message

In February, Virgin Mobile will be shut down and existing customers will be transferred to Boost Mobile, another discount carrier owned and operated by Sprint

The termination of Virgin Mobile in the US is not a surprise, as wireless carriers operating under the Virgin name in other parts of the world are alive and well Aside from an aborted attempt to rebrand itself as an iPhone-only carrier a few years ago, Virgin has not been firing on all cylinders for some time now

Sprint is also attempting to merge with T-Mobile The merger is pending resolution of court cases brought by several state attorney generals who are trying to block the merger, and one of the conditions of regulatory approval was that Sprint sell its discount brand to Dish Network Sprint's sale of its discount brands to Dish Network was one of the conditions of regulatory approval

Virgin's shutdown may make business sense, but it will be little comfort to Virgin customers who are worried about what will happen to their monthly data plans

Virgin's FAQ on the shutdown tells Virgin subscribers that their accounts will be "transferred to Boost Mobile at no additional charge, along with a Boost Mobile service plan equal to or greater than the device"

Virgin currently offers three data plans: a 5GB plan for $35 per month, a 10GB plan for $45 per month, and an unlimited data plan for $60 per month

Unlimited data users will like Boost's current data plans Unlimited data starts at $50 per month and includes 12GB of hotspot data, a six-month subscription to the Tidal streaming service, and the standard definition streaming limits for music, games, and movies that Virgin customers already faced

What departing Virgin customers may complain about is the tiered data plan; Boost offers only one tiered data plan, a $35/month plan that includes only 3GB of LTE data This is 2 GB short of what Virgin customers paid for the carrier's cheapest plan

More: Best Prepaid Wireless Plans

Virgin customers who switch to Boost can take some solace in the fact that Boost's rates include taxes and fees

However, there are some other adjustments that will need to be made if Virgin customers migrate to Boost: PayPal is not a payment option with Boost as it was with Virgin, so customers who have set up automatic payments with PayPal will have to change it a few days before their accounts are migrated Boost also does not offer 45-day and 90-day top-up payment options like Virgin does

Virgin customers can keep their phone numbers and their payment dates would remain the same unless they make changes to their plans

Another option for departing Virgin customers is to find another carrier Many discount wireless carriers offer inexpensive monthly plans with more data for less than you would pay with Boost

Cheap carriers that use Sprint's network include Google Fi and Republic Wireless, which charge $10 and $5 per gigabyte for data, respectively (Google Fi charges $25 and Republic charges $15) Tello, TextNow, and Ting also all use Sprint's network, with Tello and TextNow offering at least 5GB of data for under $30 per month