Network - Virgin
Virgin Mobile is a brand used by many mobile phone service providers based in the United Kingdom and operating in India, Australia, Canada, South Africa, the United States and France; the brand survived only briefly in Singapore. The international Virgin Mobile businesses each act as independent entities, usually in a partnership between Sir Richard Branson's Virgin Group and an existing phone company. Virgin Group provides the brand, and the phone company operates the network infrastructure.
Virgin Mobile was the world's first Mobile Virtual Network Operator when it launched in the United Kingdom in 1998. It does not maintain its own network but instead contracts to use the existing network(s) of other providers.
In the United Kingdom, Virgin Mobile uses the T-Mobile network. In the USA,Sprint Nextel is the networker. There is no roaming to other networks in the United States. In Australia, Virgin Mobile operates on the Optus network. In Canada, it uses the Bell Mobility network. In France, it uses Orange SA. Virgin Mobile South Africa uses the Cell C network for coverage across South Africa. In India, it uses the network of Tata Indicom. These networks use two different mobile telephony standards, GSM and CDMA. GSM is used in the UK, South Africa, Australia and France. CDMA is used in the US, India and Canada.GSM was launched in India recently.
In all countries, Virgin Mobile offers prepaid mobile phone pay-as-you-go service. In the UK, US, Canada, Australia and South Africa, Virgin Mobile also offers a post-paid option to approved customers. They are also looking to establish another setup in Pakistan. Already very common in the UK at the time of Virgin Mobile's launch, prepaid wireless service was a very small part of the US wireless market. Nevertheless, competitive pricing, and a "no-frills" approach ensured a small but significant market share.
In June 2009, Virgin Mobile announced and started a pay-as-you go mobile data program called "Broadband2Go" in the United States, using Novatel Wireless hardware, and available exclusively through the Best Buy chain of stores originally, but now available at other retailers including RadioShack and The Source (in Canada). It uses a USB flash drive type device plugged into a user's computer for internet connectivity.
Virgin Mobile is the official sponsor for pop superstar Britney Spears' current world tour, The Circus: Starring Britney Spears.