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Recent research shows that 4 in 10 people within the UK own a mobile phone. This figure two years ago was one in fifteen, which shows quite significant market growth. The recent introduction of pre-pay and pay-as-you-go services has only strengthened the usage of mobile phonesin the UK.
Richard Branson (famed for having a finger in every business pie… and a beard) has launched Virgin Mobile as a joint venture with One2One. Virgin Mobile is, in essence, the UK's first "virtual" mobile operator. This means that the new Virgin Mobile service operates on the One2One network, which is then brought to you, the consumer. The One2One network is one of the most technically advanced in the UK and is ideally equipped to cater for the ever-changing mobile phone market.
What's Different? Virgin Mobile has made a very big deal about how "different" its service is from all the others available. Many of you will be wondering just HOW different Virgin Mobile is. In the next few sections, I will outline what Virgin Mobile is offering.
Pricing Structure: Unexpectedly, Virgin Mobile has no tariff. You simply buy a phone (prices begin at around £70), plug in a service pack (£12.50) and you're ready to roll. You can either buy talk time vouchers, opt for pay-as-you-go (using credit/debit card), or pay as you use by direct debit (as per standard line rentals). This gives people a complete range of payment options. In addition, every new Virgin Mobile customer automatically receives £10 worth of free airtime. Call rates with Virgin Mobile are also very favourable. Charges start at 15p a minute for the first 10 minutes, 10p a minute for the next 10 and 5p a minute for the rest of the day. As far as Virgin Mobile is concerned, every customer's calling cycle begins at 4am and ends at 4am the following day. This means users who use their phones late at night will not suddenly experience tariff charges returning to 15p after midnight.
There is no peak or off peak and 0800 numbers are free (a service not found on most networks). Text messages are 10p each, calls to non Virgin Mobiles are charged at 35p per minute and voicemail retrieval is free. For all except the high-end business users, Virgin Mobile should equal a cheaper all-round service. Although the initial cost of buying the phone is higher, you are not paying a monthly line rental and call costs are cheaper.
If you already own a mobile phone, number transferral is easy if you want to swap networks. Virgin Mobile does not give you a set number of inclusive minutes per month. On most line rentals, you pay more than your inclusive time in the line rental itself. Once registered with Virgin mobile, you can use the handset for life, or not at all. It's your choice. This makes it the ideal choice for occasional, casual and light business users. For those making more than 400 minutes of calls a month, it may prove better to join a line rental network.
