Friday, January 22, 2010

India's youth brand -- Virgin Mobile -- now in GSM!

BANGALORE, INDIA: Virgin Mobile has today announced the launch of its GSM services in the country, starting with all 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.

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.

In yet another Hatke photo-opportunity, Virgin Mobile India launched its GSM services with the royal entry of Genelia D’Souza, the Virgin Mobile friendship princess along with Anil Sardana, Managing Director, Tata Teleservices and M.A. Madhusudan, Chief Executive Officer, Virgin Mobile India in a vintage car at the Palace Grounds in Bangalore.

At the time of launch, Virgin Mobile GSM services will be available in more than 300 towns, 60,000 RCV and 45,000 SUK outlets which will cater to 76% of the urban youth population.

In a 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 its 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.”

“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.

Announcing the launch of Virgin Mobile’s GSM services, M.A. Madhusudan, Chief Executive Officer, Virgin Mobile India said: “The launch of Virgin Mobile India’s GSM services is a momentous occasion for all of us. It is yet another leap for the brand to target a wider reach in the burgeoning mobility market and offer greater flexibility to the youth of India. We are launching our services and we intend to stir the GSM space with another ten firsts.

“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.”

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.

Introductory SMS packs: At the time of the launch, company will offer three SMS packs priced at Rs. 33, Rs.34 and Rs.69. The special pack priced at Rs.33 is available nationally and comes with 2000 local and national SMSs free for 30 days.

Under Rs. 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 Rs.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.

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