announced its entrance into India. Monday, “a powerful industry group, which includes Vodafone” urged India’s Department of Telecom to look into the agreement between Virgin and Tata Teleservices. As of now, Virgin has been told not to do anything until they hear from the Department of Telecom. The issue is over whether Virgin is an MVNO, which is not legal in India. Why it’s not legal, I have no idea. But despite the legality of the deal’s structure, it appears that Virgin would be classified as an MVNO. They don’t have their own spectrum, but rather use that of another carrier to provide cellular services. Furthermore, “Virgin is free to partner with other mobile operators.” This does not bode well for the deal. However, Virgin entered the agreement as a franchisee. They’re not buying bulk minutes from Tata. Rather, they’re being paid a fee every time a customer buys a service. Not sure how this one is going to shake out. But if that powerful telecommunications group has their way, Virgin will keep its grubby paws off India.]]>
Posted in Virgin Mobile
Just wanted to let you know that Virgin Mobile USA has recently basically changed their entire plan structure. Previous plans exist for existing customers and will for new customers until the 27th of this month. It’s all quite interesting, including the ability to now buy monthly minute packs that “rollover” minutes to the next month (sorry for using a AT&T phrase there). Unlimited messaging (sms, mms, AIM, and Yahoo) can now be added to a monthly plan for $10. Yeah, so the page for Virgin now needs a major change.
Thanks, Melissa. I changed that…Wednesday I think. At first I didn’t understand the difference between minutes packages and the monthly plans. But then it all started to come together.
It seems to be a good change, though. Lots more options, mostly cheaper. I’m guessing very few people will be using the base rate of 20 cents per minute (up from 18).