Virgin Mobile Broadband2Go on MacBook?

I don't know but when I investigated it said that it's not compatible with "Mac" (at this time). My question to them would be is it not compatible with Mac the hardware or Mac OS?

My guess is that they mean Mac OS in which case I would assume that if you use xp or vista via BootCamp, it should work. I happen to not use BootCamp either.

You might call and talk to their technical support team or perhaps someone will answer this post who is in the know. -GDF

I bought a Broadband2Go device today. I set it up using Windows Vista on my mac via Parallels. After following all the instructions on the PC side I quit Parallels and ejected the Broadband2Go device. I plugged the Broadband2Go device back into the USB port and it launched a welcome window, instructions for the mac and an installer package which I installed. After a restart I followed the rest of the directions for setting it up with a mac.

This device works for me on my mac.

Although in their user guide is says "Virgin Mobile does not provide support for this configuration or any issues related to Mac activation, installation or connectivity."

http://www.novatelwireless.com/index.php?view=article&catid=42%3Amac-installatio n-instructions&id=167%3Amacosxleopard-novatelevdo&option=com_content&Itemid=182

Go there and install the software, then restart your mac.

Now activate you broadband2go on a pc and plug it into your mac.

A window will pop up, install the software using the software package and restart again.

There will be a Userguide.pdf on your desktop folow the instructions in that based on your os (10.4 or 10.5)

You are now connected!

I'm so close to getting this to work. Did exactly as the last poster, and can get connected. But it will only let me access the Virgin site. Starts to load other sites and then redirects to Virgin. Anybody got any ideas how to solve that?

Thanks! Will love this service if it works...

To be clear. You say to activate on a pc and plug into your mac. Is the pc absolutely necessary and if so do you need to also install the drivers on the pc?

Confirming this. Once activated (on an XP box, was able to use Fusion) the device works fine (tried it with SL)

A spin through the users guide (included on the device) will show you how to make sure everything's configured correctly.

Same thing here. I called them, and about three times they changed something and said "does it work now?" still no. Keeps redirecting to their page. Also, when hooked back to real Internet, I can't get into the top-up page. It rejects my PIN.

I haven't been able to duplicate success with this. I don't know if it has anything to do with already having another Novatel 3G wireless card..maybe the drivers are conflicting.

Can anyone confirm that this works or shed more light on it?

Unfortunately, I was not able to get my broadband2go/novatel USB modem working with the methods described above, and on the Novatel site. Perhaps this does not work with PowerPc macs, which is what I own. HOWEVER, I did notice today, October 1, on the Virgin Mobile Broadband site, under 'system requirements, they listed MAC OS X for the first time! Perhaps it is not ready yet, but they must be getting close!!
http://www.virginmobileusa.com/mobile-broadband

Still no change on this. I don't believe that anyone has actually gotten this to work without further proof. The drivers simply do not recognize the device.

I just got this to work on my Snow Leopard MacBook Pro.

1. Activate the modem and install the software on the USB device using a Windows PC. I was able to do this on an WindowsXP machine in about 15 minutes. Don't forget to program the USB device (The step after receiving your account number).
2. Top off or add credit to your account and associate it with a "data plan". For example, I purchased a 20 dollar top up card from Best Buy, added the top up card pin number to my account, and then associated the funds from the top up card with the 20 dollar "data plan". The website should now report data remaining and expiration date.
3. Plug the card into the Mac. You should get a pop up with drivers and a manual. Install and follow instructions from the manual. If you have problems, try downloading the drivers from the Novatel website: http://www.nvtl.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=163&Itemid=536
Download the driver for the USB connected MC760
4. Connects like a champ.

It actually took me quite a while to set it up because I didn't program the modem after activating it. After that, it was pretty straight forward.
If you don't program it, it will only access the virginmobileusa.com site, VERY VERY slowly.

Good luck! Hope this helps.

I'm getting the same (lack of) results as other commenters. My computer doesn't even respond in any significant way when I plug the modem in. And when I follow the driver installation instructions, I have no Novatel Wireless option when adding a network device.

Any thoughts?

I've noticed that once you've installed the software, it no longer mounts the software drive. At this point, there's no obvious indication that the computer even recognizes the device - unless you've successfully configured everything. Makes debugging tough if everything doesn't go smoothly.

When you try to add a new interface in the network preferences, the Novatel device is not one of the options?

Did you try installing the drivers that I linked in a previous post? Also did the modem work on the Windows computer that you activated the modem on?

There is no Novatel option when I try to add a new interface. The choices I get are Airport, FireWire, Ethernet, Bluetooth, VPN, PPPoE, and 6 to 4.

I've tried installing those drivers multiple times, and presently I have some NovatelWireless stuff in /System/Library/Extensions.

It works on the Windows computer in the sense that if I try to go to a web site, it redirects to the payment page. (I'm not really interested in spending money on the data plan if the modem isn't going to work on my MBP.)

And I've tried plugging the modem into both my computer and my girlfriend's very new 13-inch unibody MBP. Neither one recognizes the modem as a mountable drive. (I haven't tried installing the drivers on her computer.)

Hello Yossef,

It might be helpful if I try to figure out your current state and ask some clarifying questions to figure out what you can try next.

+Current state:+
1. When you plug in the device, nothing happens.
2. You've installed the drivers for your specific version of OSX from the Novatel website linked in a previous post.
3. When you try to add an interface in the networking control panel, there is no option for adding the Novatel device.

+Clarifying questions+
1. Did a drive ever automatically mount when you plugged in the device? And if it did mount did you install the software from that drive? Looking at my personal notes, I was able to install the Novatel interface after running the software that was included on the USB stick. Plugging the drive into my Mac Pro at work, a drive called Novatel Wireless Mac Drivers mounts automatically. The drive contains two files. One an installation package called Installer.pkg and a second file is a link to a PDF called UserGuide.pdf.
2. Are you running any anti-virus software?
3. Did you download the software package that is specific for your operating system from the Novatel website? There are separate downloads for Tiger, Leopard, and Snow Leopard.

You can check if your machine can see the USB device. Launch the System Profiler and under Hardware click on USB. There should be something called Novatel Wireless CDMA.
On my Mac Pro, which I did not install the drivers, the device shows up under USB with the following information:
Novatel Wireless CDMA:

Capacity: 114.8 MB
Removable Media: Yes
Detachable Drive: Yes
BSD Name: disk3
Product ID: 0x5031
Vendor ID: 0x1410 (Novatel Wireless, Inc.)
Version: 0.00
Serial Number: [edited for privacy]
Speed: Up to 12 Mb/sec
Manufacturer: Novatel Wireless Inc.
Location ID: [edited for privacy]
Current Available (mA): 500
Current Required (mA): 500
Mac OS 9 Drivers: No
Partition Map Type: Unknown
S.M.A.R.T. status: Not Supported
Volumes:
Novatel Wireless Mac Drivers:
Capacity: 2 MB
Writable: No
File System: HFS+
BSD Name: disk3s0s2
Mount Point: /Volumes/Novatel Wireless Mac Drivers

If your machine can't see the USB device, you might have a bad stick or an earlier rev that doesn't have the Mac drivers. I think the earliest revs didn't have the mac drivers. Could be wrong about this though.

Other than that, the only real difference between your configuration and mine that I can see are the OS versions. I'm running Snow Leopard and you seem to be running Leopard.