Virgin Mobile USA (NYSE: VM) posted a first quarter net income of $19.1 million, or 19 cents a share, a surge of 301 percent from its earnings of $4.7 million a year earlier, as the MVNO’s introduction of new calling plans took off with customers. Excluding items, net income was 24 cents a share. Revenue was up 2 percent to $337.3 million, while net service revenue was up 4 percent at $318.1 million.

SEE ALSO: Earnings: Virgin Mobile USA FY08 Net Income Up 88 Percent

Last month, Virgin cut the price of its unlimited voice plan to $49.99 to match competitors. It also rolled out two other plans, “Texter’s Delight” and “Pink Slip Protection,” which gives subscribers 3 months free if they lose their job. Virgin Mobile USA CEO Dan Schulman said in statement, “These new offers have significantly increased our number of high-quality gross additions, with initial results showing the percentage of customers signing on for unlimited plans growing more than 5 times.”

Release | Webcast

—Gross customers additions: Virgin Mobile USA added 630,259, compared to gross customer additions of 795,575 in the first quarter of 2008. The MVNO admitted that rival offerings had hit the number of net additions in Q1, as well as its new strategy for going after “high lifetime value customers.” It also reported that its new plans were doing well, accounting for 55 percent of Virgin Mobile USA’s gross adds. As of March 31, 2009, the MVNO had approximately 5.2 million customers.

—Average revenue per user flat: ARPU for Q1 was $20.08, compared to $20.14 in the first quarter of 2008, and a decrease of 5 percent from $21.14 in the fourth quarter of 2008. Virgin blamed the sequential decline on texting replacing voice calls. Messaging traffic grew by 26 percent quarter-on-quarter in Q1. Data now accounts for 22 percent of total net service revenue, compared to 20 percent in the fourth quarter of 2008.