Under the deal, Virgin owner Sir Richard Branson was understood to be planning to swap his controlling 72% stake in VirginMobile 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.
VirginMobile Australia's headquarters is in Sydney and sell through over 3500 outlets as well as their own retail stores in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane.
VirginMobile USA began operating in the summer of 2002 and was one of the first companies in the United States to offer prepaid cellular service, and was the first prepaid-only provider.
VirginMobile Singapore was the first of what was to have been a pan-Asian mobile rollout for Virgin Group Ltd. and its 50:50 joint venture partner Singapore Telecommunications Ltd. (SingTel).
VirginMobile Asia was originally set up with a regional management team based in Singapore tasked with planning the multi-country rollout.
VirginMobile Singapore signed up around 30,000 subscribers, the company has said previously, or around 1 percent market share, as Singapore consumers preferred the lower charges of the existing operators over the new features VirginMobile introduced.
VirginMobile is partnering with ad technology firm Ultramercial and interactivemobile marketing company Vibes for the new SugarMama program, which allows opt-in users to earn talk minutes for viewing online Flash ads, receiving mobile text ads or responding to an advertiser's survey.
After conducting a focus group, Ultramercial and VirginMobile determined that the one-ad-for-one-minute tradeoff was "absolutely OK" with the wireless carrier's users, according to Ultramercial President Dana Jones.
The focus group also made clear to VirginMobile that its audience was not ready to view rich media ads on their phones.
They may not be offering the Lobster 700, but VirginMobile's US outpost can lay claim to one thing: they've bested all of their peers in J.D. Powers' latest survey of prepaid services through national carriers and MVNOs.
Interfax China is reporting that VirginMobile is close to signing a partnership with wireless carrier China Unicom that would make the UK-based company the first foreign MVNO in post-WTO China.
Virgin already has offices in Shanghai, and CEO Richard Branson recently told reporters to expect a Chinese launch this fall, so it would seem pretty likely that this venture, which is well over a year in the making, has the necessary government support to proceed.
VirginMobile is working with innovative non profits to help young people in need.
If you could combine deep, almost haunting vocals, intense lyrics, raw and aggressive guitar work, soft melodies, tight drum tracks, and a wall of sound that encompasses brilliant digital and analog effects and somehow bring them all together to round out a concept album, chances are you're going to make an impressive musical statement.
VirginMobile received the highest numerical score among wireless carriers in the proprietary J.D. Power and Associates 2006 Wireless Prepaid Customer Satisfaction Study
VirginMobile has five million UK users - a 37 per cent increase on the same period a year ago.
But the virtual mobile operator is suffering from an increasing level of churn and lower Average revenue per user (ARPU).
Virgin had its best quarter for new connections in Q4 04 - 417,000 new customers signed up, giving a total of 5,026,000 customers, up 37 per cent on the same period last year.
Britain's seven million left-handed people should not be ignored and VirginMobile is the first mobile company in the world to offer a solution to this problem working in partnership with Sony Ericsson.
VirginMobile and Sony Ericsson plan to produce a range of left-handed phones and their soon to launch 3G phones will also have left-hand friendly keypads.
We have been notified that this was an early April fools joke by Virgin.
VIRGINMOBILE really has kissed and made up with T-Mobile because details of a scheme to sell music to mobile handset owners have leaked out, according to Tony Glover writing in The Business.
The objective is to subsidise these handsets (as is normal in the UK market) which will allow VirginMobile to retail them for far less than the approximately $450 which an Apple iPOD currently costs in the UK.
It's a clever move by Virgin since although the group sold VirginRecords to Thorn-EMI years ago, it can easily promote the service via the VirginMegastores and the brilliant Virgin V festivals.
www.theinquirer.net /?article=13929 (244 words)
ABC News: Virgin Mobile Launches Mobile TV Service(Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-06)
The mobile operator part of British entrepreneur Richard Branson's Virgin empire will begin selling handsets equipped to receive the BT Group PLC's BT Movio digital television and radio services later this year, both companies said Tuesday.
Scores of exhibitors at 3GSM are showcasing mobile TV technology, which telecom carriers hope will unlock new sources of revenue and provide a return on their massive investments in third-generation phones and infrastructure.
The German operator, owned by Deutsche Telekom AG, said Tuesday it will launch its first high-speed mobile broadband service running at 1.8 megabits per second this quarter comparable with speeds over cable and DSL and hopes to increase connection speeds more than tenfold to 20 megabits per second by the end of the decade.
Interestingly, the European Union is promoting mobile television and the intended frequency it wants to use is what is called the L band for DAB radio.
This is a frequency that hasn't been used to date and the UK is looking at opening it up next year.
The VirginMobile Lobster 700TV is made by HTC, which is one of the most well-known Windows Mobile handset makers these days.
Only thing I dont liek about it is that new nicer ones are coming out and mine is old and looks like crap!!!
Virgin is the best service(I can say this after having sprint, verizon,revol, and cingular) And I love my switchback!
9/9/2006 1:54 PM hey waz up i have the new virginmobile phone that has the full size keyboard yay!!!!!!!!!
www.myspace.com /virginmobile (528 words)
Virgin Mobile Ringtones(Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-06)
the host of "The Good Night Show," after learning she had appeared in videos called "Technical Virgin." Melanie Martinez is a stage actress and the mother of a toddler, and appeared in the videos seven years ago.
In the two "Technical Virgin" videos, which were made before Martinez landed the children's show job, she spoofs public service announcements about VirginMobile Ringtones new passengers.
Peppers will headline a United States version of the usually U.K.-centric Virgin Festival at Baltimore's Pimlico Race Track on Saturday, Sept 23.
