Virgin Mobile
Virgin Mobile is a brand used by several mobile phone service providers operating in the United Kingdom (UK), Australia, Canada, South Africa, the United States (US) and France; the brand was also used for a short period of time in Singapore. The international Virgin Mobile businesses each act as independent entities, usually in a partnership between Sir Richard Branson's Virgin Group and a existing phone company. Virgin Group provides the brand, and the phone company operates the network infrastructure.
Global Network
In the UK, Virgin Mobile uses the T-Mobile network.[1] In the US, the Sprint Nextel system is the carrier.[2] There is no roaming on to other networks in the United States. In Australia, Virgin Mobile operates on the Optus network.[3] In Canada, it uses the Bell Mobility network.[4] In France it uses Orange SA.[5] Virgin Mobile South Africa uses the Cell C network for coverage across South Africa.[6] These networks use two different mobile telephony standards, GSM and CDMA. GSM is used in the UK, South Africa, Australia, and France. CDMA is used in the US and Canada.
In all countries, Virgin Mobile offers prepaid pay as you go service. In the UK, US, Australia and South Africa, Virgin Mobile also offer a "pay monthly" option, which allows users to pay for bills in arrears. Already very common in the UK at the time of Virgin Mobile's launch, prepaid wireless service was a very small part of the US wireless market. Nevertheless, competitive pricing, a "no-frills" approach and award winning customer service ensured a small but significant market share.
Virgin 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. [7]
Failure of the joint venture was attributed to a saturated mobile market, Virgin Mobile's positioning as a 'premium' brand.
[8]
See also
- Virgin Mobile UK
- Virgin Mobile Australia
- Virgin Mobile Canada
- Virgin Mobile South Africa
- Virgin Mobile USA
- Virgin Mobile France
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References
- ^ "Blyk's free mobile launch delayed". July 9, 2007. Retrieved 2007-07-20.
- ^ "Virgin considers float for Virgin Atlantic". July 15, 2007. Retrieved 2007-07-16.
- ^ "Optus Acquires Virgin Mobile Australia". January 12, 2006. Retrieved 2007-07-20.
- ^ "Virgin Mobile confirms Canada as its fourth port of call". March 31, 2004. Retrieved 2007-07-20.
- ^ "Carphone blames Virgin Mobile for woes". November 3, 2006. Retrieved 2007-07-20.
- ^ "Virgin Mobile to enter South Africa under VNO agreement". March 13, 2006. Retrieved 2007-07-20.
- ^ "Virgin Mobile exits Singapore market". Electronics News. 2003-07-10. Retrieved 2007-08-22.
- ^ Akers, Lawrence (2002-07-10). "Virgin's Version". Forbes. Retrieved 2007-08-22.
External links
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