Virgin Mobile
From Free net encyclopedia
Image:Vmlogo.gif Virgin Mobile plc is a mobile phone service provider operating in the UK, Australia, Canada, the US and France.
The company was the world's first Mobile Virtual Network Operator, launched in the UK in 1999. It does not maintain its own network, and instead has contracts to use the existing network(s) of other providers. In the UK, Virgin Mobile uses the T-Mobile network. In the US, the Sprint CDMA network is the carrier. In Australia, Virgin Mobile operates on the Optus network. In Canada, it uses the Bell Mobility network. These networks use different technology (GSM in the UK and Australia and CDMA in the US and Canada). In France it uses the Orange network.
It has reached an agreement with Cell C, the third cellular network operator in South Africa, to launch a similar service there. [1]
In all countries, Virgin Mobile offers prepaid pay as you go (phone) service. In the UK and Australia, Virgin Mobile also offer a "pay monthly" option, which allows users to pay for bills in arrears. Already very common in Britain at the time of Virgin Mobile's launch, prepaid wireless service was a very small part of the US wireless market (and is still, in terms of market share, much less common compared to Europe).
In 2004, the Virgin Group floated Virgin Mobile on the London Stock Exchange, retaining a 72% stake.
Contents |
NTL merger
In December 2005 it was announced that Virgin Mobile was in talks with NTL regarding a merger. The new company would be branded under the Virgin Group brand. A merger of Virgin and NTL would create the UK's first 'quadruple play' media company, bringing together TV, internet broadband, mobile phone and fixed-line phone services.
Under the deal, Virgin owner Sir Richard Branson was understood to be planning to swap his controlling 72% stake in Virgin Mobile for a 14% holding in NTL, which would make the billionaire entrepreneur the biggest single shareholder in the combined group, and give him a share of future revenues.
The original bid of £817 million ($1.4 billion) was rejected by Virgin Mobile's independent directors, who took the view that NTL's bid "undervalued the business". Sir Richard Branson is reported to be confident that a re-structured deal can be completed.
The offer was increased in January 2006, to £961m, or 372p per share.
On April 4, 2006, NTL Incorporated announced a £962.4m recommended offer for Virgin Mobile. The offer will have three options: 372 pence per share in cash; 0.23245 new NTL Inc. shares for each Virgin Mobile share, worth 389p; or a 0.18596 of an NTL share, and 67p in cash, worth in total 387p.
Branson has indicated that he will accept the third option. This will lead to him receiving at least a 10.1% stake in the newly enlarged NTL, and will help to fund the increased 372p per share in cash for the minority shareholders.
The independent directors of Virgin Mobile indicated to NTL that it 'intends unanimously to recommend that Virgin Mobile shareholders vote in favour of the scheme'.
Virgin Mobile UK
In the UK Virgin Mobile was launched as the world's first Mobile Virtual Network Operator in November 1999, and has over 5 million customers.
Costs
Standard tariff
International calls
Calls to Virgin phones From a BT fixed line, the following charges apply: (approximately)
Virgin Mobile USA
Virgin Mobile USA is the US subsidiary of Britain's Virgin Mobile. Virgin Mobile USA uses Sprint's CDMA-based PCS network. Virgin Mobile USA began operating in the summer of 2002 and was one of the first carriers in the United States to offer prepaid cellular service. As of December 2005, Virgin Mobile USA has over 3.6 million users.
The corporate office of Virgin Mobile USA, LLC, is located in Warren, New Jersey. The IT offices are located in Walnut Creek, CA. Customer services are handled at its two call centres (known as "Virgin Mobile At Your Service", originally called "Virgin Mobile Central Intelligence") in Spokane, Washington and Colorado Springs, Colorado.
Handsets and prepaid cards are sold through various retail outlets, such as the Target, Radio Shack, Sprint Store and major grocery and drug store chains such as Kroger, Safeway, Walgreens and Rite Aid. Additionally, existing Virgin Mobile USA customers can purchase prepaid airtime at select bank ATMs using a credit, debit or cash card. Virgin Mobile USA does not maintain its own retail stores.
Costs
There are three Virgin Mobile plans to choose from. The cost differs for each. Unlike in the UK, there is a minimum spending requirement of $20 every 90 days, or a recharge of at least $90 within three consecutive days for a "service preserver" plan that will extend the account expiration for one full year. As is usual in the USA, users pay both to place and receive calls; however, unlike some other prepaid mobile carriers, there is no charge if the incoming calls are picked up by the voicemail service and if one checks voicemail messages from a landline or another mobile phone.
Minute2Minute Plan - Original Plan
For normal phone calls, it costs 25 cents per minute for the first ten minutes used per day. After that period, the cost is 10 cents per minute. There are no roaming fees. Using the 411 service costs $1.75, plus airtime. International calls cost 20 cents to 70 cents per minute. Text messages are 10 cents to send, and free to receive.
Day2Day Plan
A fee of 35 cents per day is charged whether calls are made or not (this works out to about $11 per month). Then all calls are just 10 cents a minute all the time.
Inner Circle Plan
Customers are charged 70 cents per day whether or not the phone is used. All calls are 10 cents per minute, but additionally, customers get a "Buddy List" on their account for which they can add three phone numbers of their choosing. All calls to and from those numbers are free on nights and weekends (9pm to 7am). If the phone is only used on night and weekends by the three numbers and no additional calls or purchases are made, the cost is about $21 a month. Until the end of April 2006, customers have the option to go on this plan. Any customers on this plan after April will remain but if they switch to another plan, they cannot go back.
Month2Month Plan
For $30 per month, the plan starts off with 150 anytime minutes, and 150 night and weekend minutes. The $30 dollar cost does not include tax or regulatory fees. Usually the total rounds out to around $33 per month. Then if the 150 anytime minutes are used, $10 more is charged, and additional anytime & night and weekend minutes are added. If those are used as well, then a final $10 is charged, and additional minutes are added once again. Calls are 20 cents a minute after that, charged $10 at a time.
Text messages
Text messages are the same cost for all three plans; 10 cents to send and free to receive. (From 14 June 2006 this will be 5 cents to send and 5 cents to receive.) On the Month2Month plan, these are paid for using the cash balance on the Virgin Mobile account. Picture messages are 25 cents to send and receive. Other costs for things like ringtones, games, etc., are posted at the Virgin Mobile USA website.
In the United States, Virgin Mobile does not support external short codes such as Google SMS (i.e., GOOGL or 46645). They also silently block many popular services that have the ability to send text messages to phones, such as AIM and various web-based alerts, apparently in order to keep their costs down. Currently, MSN is apparently the only web-based alert service that is not blocked.
Now with VirginXL, UTStarcom Snapper phone and Kyocera Slider Sonic phone owners can use AIM. It costs $3.99 a month for 150 messages. If all 150 are used up before a month, 50 more can be added for $0.99 more.
Wireless data
VirginXL is Virgin Mobile USA's high speed data service. This service utilizes Sprint's PCS CDMA2000 1xRTT network. Features supported include downloadable *Java games, screensavers, wallpapers, and ringtones, *MTV content, Comedy Central content, rescue ring, wake-up calls, SpongeBob content, and the hitlist.
The phones that can utilize VirginXL service are the Audiovox 8910/Flasher V7, the UTStarcom Snapper and the Kyocera K10 Royale and Slider Sonic. All other Virgin Mobile USA phones at the moment use the slower VirginXtras portal.
On August 2 2005, Virgin Mobile launched web browsing capabilities for customers with VirginXL compatible phones. It is charged at $1.00 for unlimited access for 24 hours, or 500 kilobytes, which ever comes first. You may pay another $1.00 to purchase an additional 500 kilobytes of data if you exhaust the first 500 kilobytes within the 24 hour period.
As of August 2005, Virgin Mobile is charging a 10¢/day fee for access to VirginXtras
List of phones
VirginXtras phones:
- Kyocera Party Animal (2002) -Discontinued
- Kyocera Supermodel (2002) -Discontinued
- Kyocera K7 Rave
- Audiovox "Vox" 8500
- Kyocera K9
- Audiovox "Vox" 8610
- Kyocera Slider V5
- Nokia 2115 "Shorty"
VirginXL phones:
- Audiovox Flasher V7 (2004) - Clearance (To Be Discontinued)
- Kyocera K10 royale (2005)
- UTStarcom "Snapper" (doubles as camera) (2005)
- Kyocera Sonic Slider (2005)
Template:American mobile phone companies
Virgin Mobile Australia
Virgin Mobile Australia operates a Virtual mobile network, using Optus towers. This means that Optus is only used for network performance, not for features such as message centers or access points. Virgin also do all their own billing services, this distinguishing them from just network resellers who rely on the host network to do all these. Richard Branson recently sold his share in the company and is now 100% owned by Optus. Virgin Mobile's marketing has been aimed at the younger demographic, using advertising campaigns featuring characters such as "5 cent" (a parody of rap artist 50 cent). Virgin Mobile offers prepaid, monthly plans and cap-plans.
Costs
Standard voice call rates cover all national landline and mobile numbers and 13 numbers, but don't include 12, 18, 19 numbers, satellite and international calls. Calls are always charged per second, and not in 30 second blocks. Voicemail is free within Australia for all plans. No Australian carrier, including Virgin Mobile, charges users for receiving calls. A 20¢ call connection fee (also known as a flagfall) applies to all calls. All prices are in $AU and include GST. Virgin2Virgin rates are included with all plans unless otherwise stated and apply when one Virgin phone calls another.
Virgin2Virgin Voice calls are charged at 5¢ per minute (free to receive) Standard text (up to 160 characters) are charged at 5c MMS are charged at 25¢
Prepaid $15 Recharge Call credits expire after 180 days unless the user recharges before the expiry date Standard calls to non-virgin phones are charged at 35¢ Standard text (up to 160 characters) are charged at 25¢ MMS are charged at 60¢
$30 Recharge Call credits expire after 180 days unless the user recharges before the expiry date Standard calls to non-virgin phones are charged at 30¢ Standard text (up to 160 characters) are charged at 25¢ MMS are charged at 60¢
$50 Recharge Call credits expire after 365 days unless the user recharges before the expiry date Standard calls to non-virgin phones are charged at 28¢ Standard text (up to 160 characters) are charged at 25¢ MMS are charged at 60¢
$100 Recharge Call credits expire after 365 days unless the user recharges before the expiry date Standard calls to non-virgin phones are charged at 26¢ Standard text (up to 160 characters) are charged at 25¢ MMS are charged at 60¢
Post-paid All post-paid plans (excluding post-paid cap plans) come with a free mobile phone. For a list of current phone and plan bundles, please consult the Virgin Mobile Australia website.
Virgin Mobile Canada
The Canadian branch of Virgin Mobile started on March 1, 2005. They launched a large advertising campaign, focused on the 16-25 market, using phrases such as "Don't fall victim to the catch!". Virgin Mobile only sells its Canadian service on a pre-paid basis. VMC is owned 49% by Bell Canada and uses its CDMA service. At the launch event in Toronto's Dundas Square, Sir Richard Branson, the daredevil billionaire and Chair of the Virgin group of companies, descended down a high tension line fixed to a Virgin Mobile billboard. After the action-packed launch event, Sir Richard Branson and Andrew Black, CEO Virgin Mobile Canada, gave a news conference to talk about the launch of Virgin Mobile Canada.
Costs
Minute 2 Minute Plan
For normal (intra-province) calls, it costs $0.25CAD per minute for the first 5 minutes used per day for calls made or received. After that period, the cost is $0.15CAD per minute for the rest of the day.
Day 2 Day Plan
For $0.40CAD per day, all calls made or received (within your local service area) are charged $0.10CAD per minute, any time of day. The $0.40CAD is deducted daily, at approximately 1:00AM - 3:00AM, even on days when the phone is not in use.
All Nighter Plan
For $24.00CAD per month, calls are unlimited from 6:00PM - 5:00AM. After that period, the cost is $0.20CAD per minute. For $7.00CAD extra per month, incoming calls are unlimited.
Others
Long distance (inter-province or to the US) calls are charged at an additional $0.25CAD per minute. International calling rates are listed on Virgin Mobile Canada's website, and range from $0.85CAD to $5.00CAD plus applicable airtime.
Text messages are $0.05CAD to send to other Virgin Mobile Canada subscribers, $0.10CAD to send to non Virgin Mobile Canada subscribers in Canada or the US, and $0.25CAD to send internationally. Receiving text messages is free. Picture messages are $0.50CAD to send, free to receive.
There are no roaming fees. Top ups last 120 days. Virgin Mobile Canada's "days" start at 5:00AM in the timezone you are located in and end at 4:59AM the next day. This is both applicable to voice call fees and wireless data fees.
Wireless data
Virgin Mobile Canada's data service is called VXL. Features supported include downloadable games, screensavers, wallpapers, and ringtones.
VXL is available on all Virgin Mobile Canada phones. Viewing the VXL main menu is free, however viewing pages beyond that will cost $0.10CAD per day. Costs for games, ringtones, etc. are available at Virgin Mobile Canada's website.
It should be noted that VXL does not provide access to WAP sites other than those run by Virgin Mobile - in other words, it is presently not possible to use Virgin Mobile phones in Canada to surf the web. There is also no support for instant messaging of any kind (besides SMS/MMS).
List of phones
Template:Canadian mobile phone companies
See also
- Virgin Group
- Chrismahanukwanzakah--This was a fake holiday (an amalgamation of Christmas, Hanukkah and Kwanza) that was the center of a popular Christmas 2004-5 ad campaign in America.
External links
- Virgin Mobile
- Virgin Mobile Australia
- Virgin Mobile Canada
- Virgin Mobile UK
- Virgin Mobile USA
- Virgin Mobile France
- virginbrand.com Unofficial blog of the Virgin Groupde:Virgin Mobile