Virgin Mobile,Tata Teleservices join hands
Sir Richard Branson ultimately declares its intention to enter Indian telecom market with formal launch of the Virgin Mobile brand as a partner of Tata Teleservices.
The inside arrangements so far revealed that Virgin Mobile will keep on getting a royalty fee from Tata Teleservices for every user buying the services.
Anil Kumar Sardanah Managing Director of Tata Teleservices at a news conference in Mumbai told that Virgin Mobile will not enter India as a Mobile Virtual Network Operator (MVNO)
Virgin Mobile operates across global markets as an MVNO and does not have its any infrastructure .It offers its wireless telecom services on lease basis.
Virgin Mobile India Ltd a new company with a view to providing new branded services has been established by both these partners. They have not yet come out with details of investments
According to Sir Richard the investment target by ;2012 will be to the tune of Rs 350bn.He also views to achieve about five million subscribers within first three years and,by the time, his project attains profit earning status.
What Sir Richard says reads as ‘The estimated population in India of people between 15 and 30 years is 400mn, almost six times the whole of the UK population and these numbers promise to be a lot of fun. In the beginning Virgin Mobile will be launched in 50 cities and in a years time it will touch about 1000 cities he added.
The newly designed handsets to be floated in markets would range Rs 2000 to 5000 when offered by Tata Teleserveces .Customers yet can opt for any other CDMA handsets as Virgin Mobile would be offering SIM-card based CDMA service and would be a first such offer in India.
The further step as per Branson would be to take care of the users of GSM .”In another nine months when the new GSM players start rolling out their services, we would look to offer similar services on GSM as well’ he added.
Source Indiainfoline.