Virgin Mobile launches GSM services in 6 telecom circles

Virgin Mobile has launched GSM services in six telecom circles, including Uttar Pradesh (East), UP (West), Madhya Pradesh & Chhattisgarh, Haryana, Kolkata and Bihar.

Now, Virgin has GSM services in a total of 14 telecom circles, where its business partner Tata Teleservices Limited (TTSL) has its GSM operations under the Tata DoCoMo brand.

Virgin Mobile services are being offered to the Indian consumers by TTSL through a brand franchise with Sir Richard Branson-promoted Virgin Group. Virgin Mobile, which started its India operations in March 2008, also offers CDMA services.

“Almost 80 per cent of the Indian mobile telephony is GSM based and Virgin is counting big on the urban youth segment for growth in the segment,” Virgin Mobile CEO M A Madhusudan told newspersons here.

Asked if Virgin’s GSM operations would lead to cannibalisation with Tata DoCoMo, he noted that the GSM market was quite big and customers were attracted to a service provider by a brand rather than who operated the network.

“We are aiming at cutting into the market share of other GSM operators,” he added.

Virgin is offering 10 paise/minute for incoming calls to its GSM subscribers, while the outgoing calls would be charged at 20 paise/minute and 50 paise/minute on Virgin and other networks respectively.

“We are also offering one paisa/minute tariff, besides a host of value added propositions for the youth segment,” Madhusudan added.

Virgin is targeting 10 per cent market share in the urban youth segment, which he claims accounts for almost 50 per cent of the total mobile market in India.

“We aim to garner five million subscribers in the next six months,” he added.