If you are an Android fan that hates contracts and use pre-paid service on Virgin Mobile USA you need to be enjoying the last months of the all you can eat data buffet. The parent company of Virgin Mobile USA has announced that Virgin will start data throttling come October. Virgin notes that the move will only affect about 3% of its users.

The magic number before they start to throttle your data speeds is 2.5GB of usage per month. That isn’t a particularly astronomical number if you are the sort that likes to watch lots of streaming media or listen to streaming music on your device. Once you hit the magic 2.5GB number your data speed will be throttled back and you will see longer page load times and slower video streaming.

The speed will be chopped to 256Kbps once you reach the 2.5GB threshold. The data speed will remain at that cut back rate until the next billing cycle. Many of the post-paid carriers are going the other route and charging overage fees that can add up quickly. I would rather have the cut back speeds than risk a big bill. Virgin Mobile USA says that throttling heavy users is the best way for the company to deal with the exploding data use on its network.

[via SlashGear]