Virgin Mobile launched its GSM services in India with Tata Teleservices

On January 21, 2009, Virgin Mobile announced its GSM service in partnership with Tata Teleservices Ltd. The service will initially cover five cities of Southern India including- Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Chennai, Tamil Nadu and Kerala. The Pan-India GSM will be completed within the current fiscal year.

Voice calls on Virgin GSM network will cost Rs. 0.20 per minute for local and STD calls made to Virgin Mobile numbers and Rs.0.40 per minute for local calls and Rs.0.50 per minute for STD calls made to other networks.

At the launch event, M. A. Madhusudan, CEO, Virgin Mobile India, said that though subscriber base of mobile phone operators in India is going up, the profit bottomline is under huge pressure. However, the GSM is a big market with lots of opportunities. Every month, GSM operators are adding up around 15 million subscribers half of whom are young people. Virgin Mobile is now looking forward to become the preferred brand for making outgoing calls. Dubbed as “Doston Ka Network” (Network of friends) Virgin Mobile aims to provide services to help its customers get the most out of its friend circle.

Anil Sardana, Managing Director, Tata Teleservices told reporters that their GSM foray with DoCoMo had been well received by subscribers. This prompted the company to launch a new GSM service with Virgin. Tata also invested in additional networks to further reinforce its GSM network. Here are some of the services offered by Virgin Mobile’s GSM network:

vMingle: This service will offer users to stay connected with various social networking sites 24/7. It will be an integrated social networking service and under this service, users will keep in touch with friends at all social networking websites with one single login.

vGenie Service: This service offers birthday reminders, wake-up calls, and social networking updates.

vBelong Service: offers users to make and design their own WAP sites.

Sir Richard Branson, Chairman and Founder, Virgin Group, said that India is the only market where Virgin is present in both GSM and CDMA segment. It is a good decision on Virgin’s part because GSM is more popular in India than CDMA. According to TRAI, at the end of September 2009, there were 371 million subscribers under GSM compared to 101 million subscribers under CDMA networks.

Virgin mobile company, is a subsidy of billionaire Richard Branson’s Virgin communications. The company entered the Indian market in March 2008. A youth oriented mobile company, Virgin targeted young people between 14 and 25 years. It offers a wide range of services including music, news, Bollywood movies, sports etc. Virgin Mobile already gained popularity for its Value Added Services like “get talktime for incoming calls.” The company’s “Think Hatke” ad campaign also became very popular.

To promote its new network, Virgin Mobile hired famous Bollywood couple, Shahid Kapoor and Genelia D’souza. Last week, Shahid Kapoor and Genelia starrer Chance Pe Dance was released in theatres and the movie became immensely popular. Shahid Kapoor and Genelia looked very beautiful on the screen. Prasad Narasimhan, Chief Marketing Officer, told reporters that the couple beautifully represents their brand. They not only show what Virgin stands for but also what Virgin wants to become in the GSM segment- becoming the ultimate network for friends. Shahid Kapoor is one of the most sought after Bollywood actors today. Genelia D’Souza also has a “next-door fun loving girl” image. The two are a great fit for Virgin brand.

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