Virgin Mobile targets “the youth” with launch of Indian GSM network and further price reductions

The Virgin Mobile strategy for spreading to new countries is pretty well established. It partners with an existing carrier in the country, and offers its own branded services over its partner’s network. In India, the Virgin Mobile partnership is 50-50 with indigenous operator Tata Teleservices. But Tata runs a CDMA network, which has much less coverage in India than the dominant GSM networks. So Virgin has announced a new GSM service, an ad campaign targeting a youth audience, and new reductions in call and SMS rates.

Is Sprint buy out of Virgin Mobile more about reputation?

First announced back in July, Sprint has announced that its acquisition of Virgin Mobile in the USA is now complete. Can the Virgin brand help Sprint get over its bad public image problems?

Virgin Mobile sells its Canadian operation 100% to Bell Canada

Bell Canada has announced that it has finished buying the 50% of Virgin Mobile Canada it didn’t already own. The acquisition includes long-term rights over the branding. The mobile operator will still operate independently, as its own company, but it is now an entirely Bell-owned subsidiary.

Free Virgin mobile USA Festival with Weezer, Blink-182, Public Enemy and Franz Ferdinand plus donation SMS

Virgin Mobile USA will have a FreeFest on Sunday august 30 at Merriweather Post Pavillion in Columbia. The admission is free…. but people that come are encouraged via to donate via SMS. So Kyocera Communications the sponsor and RE*Generation Virgin’s charitable arm will be there in full force.

Virgin Mobile France partners with independent mobile app store GetJar

Virgin Mobile France has announced a huge partnership with mobile application store GetJar. The platform, device and OS agnostic app store will selling its entire selection of free mobile apps through the French operators soon-to-launch app store.

The Virgin Mobile France app store should be launched by Wednesday of this week - the 17th of June. [...]

Virgin announces pay-as-you-go wireless broadband plan for light users

Virgin Mobile USA has unveiled its new wireless broadband plan - which is the first pay-as-you-go tariff from one of the major US operators. The service sells data usage in four packages ranging from 100MB to 1GB, but according to Virgin it really shouldn’t be used by heavy data users!

The packages offered are 100MB, 250MB, [...]

Virgin Mobile USA New Family Tariffs

Virgin Mobile USA has unveiled three new contract plans for families
– $175/month All-In plan with 4000 shared anytime minutes — unlike comparable plans, this includes unlimited messaging and data services
– $50 A La Carte plan including 600 shared anytime minutes with
unlimited mobile-to-mobile minutes
– An additional 200 shared anytime [...]

Virgin launches Vmusic in India - free music has never been worth so little

QuickPlay and Virgin Mobile today announced a new music service for the Indian market. Vmusic will be the first unlimited service for full-track music downloads from Virgin Mobile in India. Quickplay will be providing the infrastructure for the service, which will be free to subscribers… for the first 12 months, anyway.

vJazz phones from Virgin Mobile [...]

Virgin Mobile India packages free music with new mobile device

The new vJazz mobile phone from Virgin Mobile India is it’s latest attempt to catch the youth segment. The phone is aimed square at music lovers, coming pre-packaged with the vMusic service - but the allure of the vJazz is that all music downloads are free for a year with the phone.

The phone comes with [...]

Virgin sweetens unlimited mobile data plan with free music downloads

Virgin Mobile and Bebo have teamed up to provide free music to mobile users of the social network. The new service is part of Virgin’s recently launched Addict price plan, which offers unlimited data and SMS to users who top up by at least 20 euro per month

The free-to-download service works by letting users download [...]

Jobless and on welfare? Then Virgin will pay your mobile bill.

Virgin Mobile USA has taken the interesting precaution of guaranteeing it’s customers bill payments for them if they lose their jobs. Under the “Pink Slip Protection” plan, if you become unemployed and are eligible for welfare, Virgin will pay your mobile bill for you for three months. All it requires is that you’ve been with [...]

Virgin Mobile USA adds mobile social networking service to prepaid, but misses the mark on data

Virgin Mobile has announced that it’s prepaid customers in the states will be getting access to Virgin’s “Connect” service. “Connect” is a mobile social networking hub, giving users to all of the most popular social networks from one mobile location, with one log-on. Virgin has also announced that it will be giving prepaid customers access [...]

Virgin Mobile USA launches new Britney Spears campaign - but does endorsement work on mobile?

Virgin Mobile USA has launched it’s new “Take Advantage” campaign, informing customers of greater control over their mobile billing and costs. It’s also taking advantage of the Virgin sponsorship of Britney Spears new “Circus” tour, to integrate her into the campaign.
The theme for the campaign is that Virgin is encouraging customers to take advantage of [...]

Preliminary metrics report from Virgin Mobile USA shows good customer acquisition

Virgin Mobile USA today announced some key metrics for the three months and full year ended December 31, 2008:
- Fourth quarter net customer additions were approximately 216,000 with churn for the fourth quarter 2008 of 4.8%, as the Company saw a benefit from consumers looking for value in a challenging economic environment.
- Virgin Mobile USA [...]

MySpace and Virgin Mobile team up to bring the social network on-deck in India

Virgin Mobile customers can now get instant access to MySpace through Virgins vBytes portal in India. The social network will be clickable from all WAP-enabled Virgin handsets.
From the release:
Commenting on the partnership, Deval Parikh, chief officer, handsets and VAS, Virgin Mobile India, said, “We are thrilled to be the first to have partnered with MySpace [...]

Mobile News for Leaders