Company Press Release:

 

INDIA’S YOUTH BRAND ‘VIRGIN MOBILE’ -  NOW IN GSM

 

 

-       GSM services kick start with rollout in 5 South circles – Karnataka, AP, Chennai, Tamil Nadu and Kerala

-       Wide coverage across more than 300 towns, 60,000 RCV and 45,000 SUK outlets

-       STD calling has become local; with the new and simple tariff of STD at just 20p/minute WITHOUT any pack. Save up to 200% while you connect with your friends

-       Innovative and tailor made VAS offerings

-       Only prepaid service that offers itemized bill on prepaid services without any extra cost

-       Only prepaid service that assures users a bill guarantee

 


MA Madhusudan, CEO, Virgin Mobile India, Anil Sardana, MD, TTSL & Genelia @ VMI GSM launch

Bangalore, January, 2010: 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 Mr. Anil Sardana, Managing Director, Tata Teleservices and Mr. M.A. Madhusudan, Chief Executive Officer, Virgin Mobile India in a vintage car at the Palace Grounds in Bangalore.

Text Box: VIRGIN MOBILE FIRSTS IN GSM   1) STD is now equal to local call - with STD at just @ 20p without any packs   2) Itemised mobile bills on prepaid to all customers without any extra cost   3)100% Bill Guarantee for prepaid customers - Error free bill or the bill shall be paid for by Virgin Mobile.  Resolution of billing complaints in 48 hrs or bill shall be paid for by Virgin Mobile   4) Select your number on prepaid - Customers will now have the freedom to go to a Retail store and ask for a number they want rather than be forced to pick whatever is available at the counter   5) vBelong - Virgin Mobile Users will be able to design & create their own WAP sites for their group / college / community to showcase their talents by uploading images, music, events, forums, blogging and much more   6) vJingle - Virgin Mobile customers get an opportunity to avail free Tring Tunes for a month by agreeing to promote vJingle as their ringback tone for one month.   7) WOW - A tool to initiate the subscriber into the world of Virgin Mobile & wow them with the VMI services through sampling & providing an insight into what Virgin Mobile is all about. As soon as the sim card is activated, the tool offers a pandora’s list of exciting services & content to engage the user.   8) vMingle - An integrated social networking service which brings your life on Facebook, Orkut and MySpace in one place. It allows users to stay in touch with friends across all three social networks at one time through a single log-in.   9) vGenie - Virgin Mobile will offer a mobile (virtual) assistant that will be with VMI customers from the start of the day till end of the day providing Birthday reminders, social networking updates, wakeup call on Voice & SMS.   10) Script less Calls Center: Real Conversations with a human touch - A unique SCRIPT-FREE contact center.  A unique, personalized on-boarding program for all new customers and end -to- end ownership--Transaction are closed by the same contact center executive who receives the call    

 

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 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.”

 

“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% 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 Mr. Anil Sardana, Managing Director, Tata Teleservices Limited.

 

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. 

 

  

About Virgin Mobile

Virgin Mobile is India’s first national youth-focused mobile brand. Virgin Mobile branded services are being offered to the Indian consumers by Tata Teleservices through a brand franchise with Virgin group. Virgin Mobile India facilitates Tata Teleservices with experience and expertise in designing, marketing and servicing of Virgin Mobile branded products for the youth segment. Virgin Mobile services are being supported from 14 offices across India and the current employee strength is more than 750 personnel. Virgin Mobile branded service can be enjoyed by customers in over 3,50,000 cities, towns and villages across India.

 

Virgin Mobile bagged the ‘Most Innovative Mobile Services’ award at the Annual Infocom National Telecom Awards in 2009. Also in the SAARC Countries Mobile User Survey 2008, Virgin Mobile India has been ranked as No. 1 in Customer Satisfaction. On the overall satisfaction parameters Virgin Mobile scored over 95%. Taking the Goa Fest 2009 by storm, Virgin Mobile India bagged 7 Abby awards at India’s most prestigious National Advertising Awards Festival! This included 4 silver and 3 bronze Abbys for innovative and distinctive campaigns across Print, Radio, Outdoor and Event. In the recently held Emvies Awards 2009, Virgin Mobile has won silver and bronze for the Best Media Strategy (Services) and Best Media Innovations (Events) categories respectively. This year, Virgin Mobile India bagged Bronze “Effies” and earlier it bagged the Silver ‘Effies’ for its creative ideas and market effectiveness of its clutter-breaking campaigns.  It has also been rated 15th in the Buzziest Brands of the year Poll 2009 conducted by afaqs.com and 27th most trusted brand by ET. For further information, please log on to www.virginmobile.in.   

About Virgin – The Group

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 2007 exceeded £11.5 billion (approx. US$23 billion). 

About Tata Teleservices Limited

Tata Teleservices Limited is one of India’s leading private telecom service providers, having a pan-India presence across all of India’s 22 telecom Circles. The company offers integrated telecom solutions to its customers under brands - Tata Indicom, Tata DOCOMO, Tata Photon and Tata Walky and uses both the CDMA and GSM technology platform(s) for its wireless networks. Tata Teleservices Limited, along with Tata Teleservices (Maharashtra) Limited, operates in more than 420,000 towns and villages across the country, serving nearly 60 million subscribers. After its collaboration with Japan’s NTT DOCOMO in November 2008, Tata Teleservices has so far launched GSM services under the TATA DOCOMO brand name in 15 telecom Circles, and the remaining part of the country is also expected to be covered shortly. In December 2008, Tata Teleservices announced a unique reverse equity swap strategic agreement between its fully-owned telecom tower subsidiary—Wireless TT Info-Services Limited—and Quippo Telecom Infrastructure Limited, thereby becoming the largest independent entity in this space. Tata Teleservices’ bouquet of telephony services includes mobile services, wireless desktop phones, public booth telephony and Wireline services. For details, visit www.tatateleservices.com, www.tataindicom.com and www.tatadocomo.com