It looks like budget-focused Sprint subsidiary Virgin Mobile USA is taking a page out of T-Mobile's book. Starting on Friday, the carrier will allow users to access certain streaming music services without taking the requisite hit to their data caps. The selection is a bit paltry at the moment (and notably lacking in both Google Play Music and Apple's Music service), but fans of Pandora Radio, Slacker, and iHeart Radio should be glad to hear that they can listen to practically unlimited amounts of music while they're out and about without incurring an extra charge.

Virgin Mobile is also reshuffling its phone plans. Customers now have the choice between the base plan with 500 minutes, unlimited text, and no data for $25, or increasing buckets of 1GB for $35, 3GB for $45, or 8GB for $55. All "unlimited" data plans (which cut you down to 2G speeds once you hit the oxymoronic limit) have no cap on talk or text. All plans except the base include unlimited music streaming on those three services.

Those plans are up from 250MB, 1GB, and 3GB at their respective levels, so it's quite a bump for the same price. Of course, you'll still have to choose from Virgin's rather limited selection of smartphones (most of which are at least a year old) and deal with piggybacking on Sprint's network, which isn't exactly the most robust in the country.