I was seeing ads from Virgin mobile but thought to check out it later.
So news is :
src:RediffThe UK-based Virgin Group, owned by British billionaire Richard Branson, has launched its telecom brand -- Virgin Mobile -- in India under a franchisee agreement with CDMA major Tata Teleservices .
The company is also bringing in a regime of 'getting paid for receiving calls,' while offering local calls at 50 paise per minute.
Virgin Mobile is targeting the youth, aged between 15 and 30 years, estimated to be around 400 million, which is almost six times the size of that in the US. The usage of this sector is also high with urban youths' mobile usage standing at around 360 million minutes compared with the industry average of 160 million minutes, while their SMS usage is four times more than the industry average," Branson told reporters in Mumbai.
The company plans to rope in over 5 million customers in three years and is hopeful of a breakeven during the period, Branson said.
TTSL will sell the Virgin Mobile brand and its services in the country and will pay a royalty for every customer it gets. The CDMA major will launch the services initially across 50 cities (in 17 circles) and will cover over 1,000 cities by the end of the year.
So basically they are CDMA service provider hence will use TATA's network. As per my experience TATA's network is not very good now a days. Also TATA was not updating their plans for mobile connection from long, even their sales representatives are not happy with them. May be this is the reason that they had plan to launch Virgin Mobile in India.
They have 6 mobile phone sets to offer under virgin mobile, hmm.. all are low end and also low cost, for example, V Slim is a samsung with basic features including basic camera and cost around Rs. 4500 .
So they will pay 10 paise for every 60 seconds of incoming call. They are targeting on youth, so to make one outgoing you will have to get 5 minutes of incoming as their outgoing is 50 paise per minute for local phones. Getting paid for receiving phone looks exciting only on paper, you will get Rs. 6 after having a talk of 1 long hour. Is it viable ?
One good thing from them is their recharge voucher, they offer free 300 local sms on recharge voucher of Rs. 249 with 1 month validity as well as Rs. 180 talk time. So far looks good.
Its all prepaid stuff, no postpaid, its like another service from TATA under different brand name.
Here is what they say about Virgin Mobile:
“Virgin Mobile” brand is India’s ‘first’ national youth-focused mobile service. “Virgin Mobile” branded services are being offered to the Indian consumers by Tata Teleservices through a brand franchise with Virgin. Virgin Mobile India will provide Tata Teleservices with experience and expertise in designing, marketing and servicing of “Virgin Mobile” branded products for the youth segment.
And about The Virgin Mobile Revolution Evolution
Virgin, a leading branded venture capital organization, is one of the world's most recognized and respected brands. Conceived in 1970 by Sir Richard Branson, the Virgin Group has gone on to grow very successful businesses in sectors ranging from mobile telephony, to transportation, travel, financial services, leisure, music, holidays, publishing and retailing. Virgin has created more than 200 branded companies worldwide, employing approximately 50,000 people, in 29 countries. Its revenues around the world in 2006 exceeded £10 billion (approx. US$20 billion)
Do you expect any resolution ?
If it is for Youth then why they are missing most important aspect of Youth targeted plan ie. Unlimited calling ? Though TATA offers Unlimited calling to all TATA phones on something Rs. 325 RCV with 30 days validity and Rs. 150 talktime. So you can guess what one will prefer, virgin or that of TATA's own RCV 325 .
Virgin also offer vPOWER ie. their tariff change top-up, Rs. 35 makes it Rs. 1 all STD for 1 month.
So, looking around all aspect, its more glittering but not that much juicy. I do not expect any revolution untill TATA is not working to improve their network.
Kindly post your views...
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