Virgin Mobile is a wireless communications brand used by eight
independent brand-licensees worldwide. Virgin Mobile branded wireless
communications services are currently available in Australia, Colombia, the
United Kingdom, Canada, Chile, France, Saudi Arabia, Poland, South Africa,
México, and the United States. Virgin Mobile branded services were formerly
offered in Singapore, India and Qatar. Each Virgin Mobile branded entity acts
independently from the others, thus the handsets, service plans and network
radio interfaces vary from country to country. In a given country, the Virgin
Mobile wireless entity is typically a partnership between Richard Branson's
Virgin Group and an existing mobile network operator or mobile virtual
network operator. Current brand license holders
= Virgin Mobile Australia = Virgin Mobile Australia is a
telecommunications company based in Sydney, Australia. They sell through
over 73 retail outlets, including flagship stores in Perth, Sydney,
Adelaide, Canberra, Melbourne and Brisbane, as well as via telesales and
online. In Australia, Virgin Mobile operates on
the Optus network. = Virgin Mobile Canada =
Virgin Mobile Canada experienced substantial growth in 2008, launching
approximately 60 'Virgin Mini Stores' across the country. VMS are kiosks
usually located in shopping malls that especially target the 18- to 35-year-old
demographic. For four years running, Virgin Mobile Canada has received J.D.
Power and Associates' annual award for Highest Customer Satisfaction for
Prepaid Wireless. Post-paid plans were introduced to Virgin Canada in February
2008. Bell Mobility acquired Virgin Mobile
Canada in May 2009 for CAN$142 million. Some of its stores in Ontario and Quebec
are operated by the largest Bell franchise, Cellcom Communications. Since
early 2010, Virgin Mobile Canada launched the iPhone 3G, 3GS and 4
post-paid service in Virgin Mobile Retail Stores and online, all around
Canada. Virgin Mobile became the fifth brand offering the iPhone in Canada,
after Fido, Rogers Wireless, Telus and Bell Mobility.
In conjunction with the launch of the third-generation iPad, Bell Mobility
will allow Virgin Mobile Canada customers to access its LTE network.
= Virgin Mobile France = Virgin Mobile France is the French
division of Virgin Mobile. It is a mobile virtual network operator, and a
subsidiary of Virgin Group. Launched in France on 3 April 2006,
Virgin Mobile is the fifth mobile operator on the French market, and the
first MVNO by number of subscribers, with over 2 million customers. Chaired
by Geoffroy Roux de Bézieux, Virgin Mobile is commercialized by OMEA
TELECOM, a joint venture between Virgin Group and Carphone Warehouse.
It is known to be the first operator to have launched a plan with unlimited SMS
in France. = Virgin Mobile Poland =
Virgin Mobile Poland is a mobile phone service provider operating in the
Poland. The company launched in 2012. Being a virtual operator, Virgin Mobile
does not maintain its own network, and instead has contracts to use the
existing network of PLAY. = Virgin Mobile South Africa =
Virgin Mobile South Africa is a joint-venture between Sir Richard
Branson's Virgin Group and Cell C. Virgin Mobile South Africa launched in
2006. In February 2011 it was reported that Cell C's 50% stake in Virgin Mobile
is to be sold to Virgin Group of the UK and Calico Investments of the Bahamas.
= Virgin Mobile UK = Virgin Mobile UK is a mobile phone
service provider operating in the United Kingdom. The company was the world's
first Mobile Virtual Network Operator, launched in 1999. Being a virtual
operator, Virgin Mobile does not maintain its own network, and instead
has contracts to use the existing network of Everything Everywhere. Virgin
Mobile was bought by NTL:Telewest on 4 April 2006 before joining the quadplay
of Virgin Media services when NTL:Telewest rebranded into Virgin Media
on 9 February 2007, with a new logo in-line with Virgin Media.
Initially, Virgin Mobile in the UK used the network coverage of Mobile Operator
T-Mobile and have been doing so since their establishment, however, following
the merger of T-Mobile and Orange UK to form the brand "Everything Everywhere"
in Britain, customers could begin to take advantage of Orange's broadcasting
signals in addition to those of T-Mobile from Autumn 2011. The networks have
since merged to become the EE network. = Virgin Mobile USA =
Virgin Mobile USA, L.P. is a wholly owned subsidiary of Sprint Corporation
that provides nationwide, prepaid, wireless voice, messaging and broadband
data products and services to customers in the continental United States under
the Virgin Mobile, "payLo by Virgin Mobile" and "Assurance Wireless Brought
to You by Virgin Mobile" brands. Founded in 2001 as a joint venture between
Virgin Group, Singapore Telecommunications Limited and Sprint
Corporation, Virgin Mobile USA commenced operations in June, 2002 as a mobile
virtual network operator providing services via the nationwide Sprint 1900
MHz PCS, CDMA, digital network. Virgin Mobile USA provides services to
customers via the Sprint 1900 MHz PCS CDMA digital and LTE, and 2500 MHz WiMAX
networks. Virgin Mobile branded handsets and broadband access devices are
available online and at more than 40,000 retail partner locations including Best
Buy, RadioShack, Target, Walmart and independent dealers nationwide. Virgin
Mobile branded "top-up" cards are available online and in 150,000 retail
locations nationwide. In 2008, Virgin Mobile USA acquired
post-paid services provider Helio, Inc. In 2009, Sprint Nextel Corporation
bought out joint venture partners Virgin Group and SingTel, becoming the sole
owner of Virgin Mobile USA. Virgin Mobile USA is headquartered in
Warren, New Jersey, United States and provides service to approximately 6
million customers. = Virgin Mobile Latin America =
Virgin Mobile Chile Virgin Mobile Latin America launched
operations in Chile in April 2012, having received regulatory approval from
Chile’s telecommunications regulator as well as signing an agreement with
Movistar, one of the country’s leading mobile network operators. VMLA announced
in June of this year its plan to become Latin America’s leading mobile virtual
network operator. Since then, the company has made significant progress
towards its goal of beginning commercial operations in many countries. Chile will
be its first commercial operation in early 2012. Richard Branson commented:
"We are excited to have made such good progress towards launching our first
mobile business in Latin America in Chile."This is an exciting project for
Virgin and we believe Virgin Mobile Chile customers will be delighted by the
services we will be offering them at launch." “We are very appreciative of
Subtel’s prompt approval of our application," said VMLA’s chairman Phil
Wallace. Virgin Mobile Colombia
Colombia was the second South American country that received the Virgin Mobile
network. It launched officially plans and services on April 3, 2013, working
with Movistar's electromagnetic frequency. The high rate of active
mobile lines in Colombia makes this country a good place to set telecom and
networks operations. Virgin Mobile took advantage of the 4G spectrum auction in
Colombia in June 2013 to release more data services with the fastest mobile
speed in the world. Virgin Mobile México
As of early 2014, Virgin Mobile Latin America's site for Virgin Mobile México
is up and as of 10 April 2014, it is possible to purchase micro, nano and
regular sim cards through several points of sale located in shopping malls or
over the internet. They have reached an agreement to use Movistar´s network. As
of April 2014 they only offer basic prepaid service on a pay-as-you-go
basis, and are expected to introduce more diverse offers soon.
Future expansion plans Virgin Mobile Latin America's next
business-venture initiative continues with Virgin Mobile Brazil and Virgin
Mobile Peru. Former brand license holders
= Virgin Mobile Qatar = Virgin Mobile Qatar was a brand
licensing partnership agreement between Virgin Group and Qatar Telecom. The new
brand was launched 13 May 2010 over the network of Qatar Telecom. Virgin claims
to be Qatar’s first youth-oriented mobile brand, and offers pre-paid-only,
simplified all-day tariff plans, with a 180-day airtime validity — which it says
is the longest available in the country. Local calls are charged at QAR0.55 per
minute for the first five minutes used in each day, and QAR0.30 per minute
after that, whilst mobile internet access costs QAR1 per 1MB. Richard
Branson, chairman of UK-based Virgin Group, said: "Virgin Mobile [has] more
than 15 million customers around the world ... I am proud to have partnered
with Qtel to make Virgin Mobile Qatar our first mobile launch in the Middle
East." The service is the eighth Virgin Mobile branded operation in the world,
following on from launches in the UK, Australia, the US, Canada, France, South
Africa and India. Branson added that Virgin Group is mulling further
partnerships with Qtel, which has a group presence in 17 countries.
Virgin Mobile Qatar was being widely mistaken to be the third-mobile network
operator in Qatar, in the form of a mobile virtual network operator,
essentially a brand as reseller. It has been confirmed by the Qtel and ictQatar,
the local telecommunications authority reiterating that its only a branding
agreement. This service has since closed due to a
dispute with Vodafone. Customers will have ample opportunity to obtain their
replacement SIM cards or seek a refund. Qtel will communicate full details of
the migration programme and customer refund options to all of their QVMS
customers and provide them with reminders before finally de-activating
any remaining active Virgin Mobile branded SIM cards between the 1 and 3
August 2011. = Virgin Mobile Singapore =
Virgin Singapore was launched in October 2001 as a joint venture with Singtel.
The operations were closed down by October 2002 after failing to attract a
significant number of customers. Failure of the joint venture was
attributed to a saturated mobile market and Virgin Mobile's positioning as a
"premium" brand. = Virgin Mobile India =
On 1 March 2011, Virgin launched the Mobile brand in India through a
franchise arrangement with NTT DoCoMo. This was Virgin’s seventh launch
globally and its largest. However, on 29 March 2008, the Department of Telecom
cleared the deal after clarification from Tata Teleservices indicated that
Virgin had not entered India as an MVNO. Tata Teleservices merged the company
into its existing Tata DoCoMo service on 27 March 2015.
References External links
Virgin Mobile Official Virgin Mobile Latin America