Corrected 6/15/2009: Virgin Mobile says this service is not yet available for Mac/Linux users but will be in upcoming weeks. 

For people too cheap to cough up monthly fees for wireless broadband cards, Virgin Mobile USA just announced a wireless modem that is pay as you go. No monthly fees, no contracts, no activation fees. (Nice!)

The aptly named Broadband2Go runs on Sprint’s EV-DO wireless network, so users can expect download speeds of around 1 megabit per second. The modem is a Novatel Wireless USB key, model number MC760. It plugs into a laptop, picture on right (image courtesy of Virgin Mobile). It also includes a microSD card slot to store files.

The prepaid mobile phone market has become hyper competitive this year as companies like Irvine’s Boost Mobile introduced unlimited plans for $50/month. But Virgin Mobile’s news today could bring prepaid to a new audience of people who don’t want to commit to costly monthly mobile broadband plans.

The modem costs $149.99. And then you’ll need to purchase data plans via “Top-Up” cards or credit/debit cards so it can be pay as you go. According to Virgin Mobile, users will need to buy the cards — available in amounts of $10, $20, $40 or $60 — and then use those to buy data plans, from 100 megabytes to 1 gigabyte. 

Virgin Mobile estimates that a $20 card, which is enough for a 250 MB plan, translates into 12 hours of Web browsing. That beats Verizon Wireless’ fee for its broadband card, which is $40 for 250 MB. 

But to match Virgin Mobile’s best value, the $60 1 GB plan with Verizon’s or Sprint’s standard data plan, you’ll boost the cost to $360 for 5 GBs. That’s significantly higher than the $60/month fee that Verizon and Sprint charge for the same amount of data.   

And one big drawback to pay as you go is that if you don’t use it, you lose it, a common feature with prepaid plans. Virgin Mobile’s data packages expire. The 100 MB plan must be used within 10 days. The other plans expire within 30 days. However, the expiration data starts over if you add more megabytes.

Best Buy Mobile will start selling the modem in late June for $149.99. It’s compatible with computers running Windows, Mac or Linux operating systems (not yet available for Mac and Linux but will be in upcoming weeks, says Virgin Mobile) and equipped with a Type-A USB port. There’s also a meter to monitor data usage.

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