Virgin Mobile has finally launched mobile broadband, around ten months behind its competitors.
Virgin will not be using price to compete for mobile broadband customers, rather the company hopes its reputation for providing good fixed line broadband services will help create interest in the service.
Mobile broadband the first genuine integrated Virgin Mobile and Virgin Media product.
‘This is a broadband business, adding mobile broadband is a natural thing for us to do. As a business we can satisfy people who want really fast cable broadband and the more convenient mobile,’ Graeme Oxby, managing director of Virgin Mobile said.
Virgin will not be pouring large amounts of money into marketing the product either. The company’s entire advertising budget for the pre-Christmas period is £1 million. The ad campaign for mobile broadband will be themed ‘ Honey, I shrunk the internet’ Oxby reveals.
Being the first company to offer quad-play services, Virgin is likely to bundle mobile broadband with its other telecoms services, such as fixedline broadband and telephony. But how Virgin will bundle the service is still open. ‘We haven’t got into the subsidised laptop model yet but nothing to announce as yet,’ Oxby said.
Virgin Mobile has 120 stand alone stores currently, including 105 concessions in Zavvi stores.