Virgin Mobile enters the GSM battleground
By siliconindia   |   Friday, 22 January 2010, 01:51 IST   |    5 Comments
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Virgin Mobile enters the GSM battleground
Bangalore: Virgin Mobile has now decided to move on from CDMA, and has announced the launch of its GSM service in five southern circles. As India's only national youth focused brand, Virgin Mobile has entered the GSM market with the definite objective of helping youth leverage and use the power of their network of friends. To this end, they have launched with a plethora of unique products and services designed to strengthen their brand promise to the youth of the country. In a video message at the launch press conference, Sir Richard Branson, Chairman and Founder of the Virgin Group, said: "The Virgin Mobile brand in India has created distinct benchmarks in the youth segment since the time of it's launch. The success of the brand will now be leveraged further with the launch of its GSM offerings, bringing the youth an international mobile telephony experience. This moment of triumph truly emphasises the group's focus on deepening its presence in one of the most exciting markets in the world." Virgin Mobile with its foray into the GSM segment has announced ten industry 'firsts' for the youth of India, clearly looking forward to garner a significant market share. The ten industry 'firsts' include the innovative VAS offerings like 'vMingle', 'vBelong', 'vGenie', 'WOW' 'vJingle' and many more to follow with music, infotainment and social networking as the key areas of focus. Virgin Mobile will also be the first mobile service brand to offer its users a full bill guarantee on prepaid. In case the billing complaints of users are not addressed within 48 hours, bill shall be paid for by Virgin Mobile. Virgin Mobile consumers will also get to choose numbers that fit their attitude even in prepaid. Apart from this, Virgin Mobile's another industry first - of offering all its prepaid customers an itemised bill without any extra cost which they can access on the Virgin Mobile website. A unique brand ambassador initiative in colleges called 'vTurks' has been rolled out with the aim to create Virgin Mobile champions to tap into specific communities. "It is a matter of immense pleasure to be a part of this exciting new journey of Virgin Mobile in India. The TTSL Virgin Mobile association has further strengthened with the launch of the brand in the GSM space. Virgin Mobile as a brand has created for itself a unique position in the minds of consumers in a very short span of time. It has challenged the industry conventions and created some real disruptive products and services in the past. I am confident of the fact that the brand will garner 10 percent market share in the urban youth segment and its foray into the GSM segment will further spice up the mobility market and offer greater value and differentiated service to the consumers," said Anil Sardana, Managing Director, Tata Teleservices. Virgin Mobile GSM services will be available in more than 300 towns, 45,000 RCV and 60,000 SUK outlets which will cater to 76 percent of the urban youth population. Company will offer three SMS packs priced at 33, 34 and 69. The special pack priced at 33 is available nationally and comes with 2000 local and national SMSs free for 30 days. Under 34 pack, customers will get 10,000 local SMS free. This pack is only available in Tamil Nadu and Chennai circles. The friendliest pack priced at 69 will offer 500 local and national SMS free daily. The pack will be available 7 days from the day of launch. All three packs come with a validity of 30 days. "As the only mobile service brand designed for youth, we aim to provide them the most innovative and differentiated offerings with the experience of a world class network. All our offerings encapsulate the benefits of 'network for friends' leveraging the fun quotient of Virgin Mobile brand on the mobile communication platform. This launch will help us further consolidate our position as one of the leading, youth mobile service brands," said M.A. Madhusudan, Chief Executive Officer, Virgin Mobile India. Social Networking websites have become the latest target for telecom operators. Most of the Indian users are still price conscious when it come to prices for data plans. Keeping that in mind Virgin Mobile has customized its packages. Around the 30 million subscribers using social networking sites out of which only two million use it from mobile. So there is a vast potential to tap in that space, says Jamie Heywood, Deputy CEO of Virgin Mobile India. Tata Teleservices will definitely be going for the 3G auctions and if they manage to get a slot then it will be a great advantage. "3G is very important for the future of Indian Telecom industry. Unless a new spectrum comes up, there is no scope of expansion for operators," Heywood added. Virgin mobile has been known to focus completely on youth segment. On being questioned whether this strategy is working for them, Heywood said, "If we would have broaden our base we would have been crucified. There is very less room to grow in Indian market. We might not become the biggest but we will definitely aim to be the best in youth segment." For now, consumers across South India circles will be offered a differentiated tariff of 20p/min for STD and Local calls to any Virgin Mobile number without any pack. Virgin Mobile customers calling any other network will be charged at 40p/min for local and 50p/min for STD calls again without any packs. As another initiative to inch closer to the youth and take the brand to the next level, Ranbir Kapoor and Genelia D'Souza have been appointed as the new brand ambassadors for Virgin Mobile in India. Virgin Mobile will be offering both per paise plan as well as normal plans. Virgin Mobile will be available in both CDMA and GSM.

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