CTIA Keynote: Richard Branson of Virgin Mobile

For his serious material, Branson talked about Virgin Mobile’s competitiveness against the big guys, and Virgin’s success with the MVNO model. We’ve seen a number of these companies fail in the past 18 month or so — ESPN Mobile, Amp’d Mobile, Disney Mobile, and XE Mobile to name a few — but Branson sees his championing of the customer as a large part of the company’s success. Another topic was the economy, which was addressed to Reuters prior to the keynote.

“There are cycles,” he told Reuters in an interview ahead of his keynote speech at the CTIA annual wireless show. “I don’t think the consumer downturn in America will be more than 12 months. It’s likely to be 12 months.”

Now, if only his company can start posting gains…]]>