Capitalizing on MNP

After a

successful run in South India and Orissa, Virgin Mobile has now launched its GSM

services in Maharashtra. Talking about the launch, Jamie Heywood, deputy CEO,

Virgin Mobile, India says, "As GSM is where a larger portion of the total mobile

subscriber base lies, this is a great opportunity to stake the success of our

CDMA offerings and build on them; the goal is to take these opportunities and

make them available to a larger audience."

With this in mind, Virgin is building on its VAS which

accounts for 9-10% of its revenues. It is offering three new schemes, namely 20

paise per minute anywhere in India tariff, available for both CDMA and GSM

subscribers, as well as Virgin to other cells at 40 paise, and Virgin to

landlines at 50 paise which gives 20% savings as compared to other operators.

Secondly, with the popularity of mobile social networking growing, Virgin has

launched 'Friends Circle', wherein one can enter subscriber details and social

networking sites' preferences. The same gets saved on the mobile instantly and

is available every time one connects. With the vGenie service, customers can

analyze and monitor social networks and provide updates. Other VAS include

vBelong, where group members can design and create their own WAP sites for their

group; while vJingle offers free tunes, and others.

"Thirdly, in order to establish ourselves as a trusted service provider, we

have the option where one can log on to our website and get a free itemized

bill. We also provide a bill guarantee, under which if any item billed is

incorrect, we will not only refund the customer, but also pay for the previous

month's bill, thus ensuring transparency of operations," remarks Heywood. These

two postpaid services will be offered free till March end as a promotional run,

after which a daily price of Rs 2 will be charged for it.

Virgin hopes to roll out services across the country by the year end.

According to Heywood, "We intend to spend Rs 500 crore over the next six

months to make the GSM launch a success. With the ensuing tariff war, companies

that survive will have to manage costs and revenues with added scalability by

offering more minutes on their network, and by sharing technology infrastructure

between two mobile numbers, thus optimizing revenue through segmented offerings

and increased VAS. In this context, Virgin's current partnership with Tata will

see us through this difficult time."

Talking about MNP and the number game, Heywood was happy about achieving the

5 mn subscribers mark in six months, well ahead of the original goal that was

set in March 2008.

He believes, "MNP in other markets is unleashed by competitors, that is

operators. MNP is a great thing and should happen quickly. As of now, customers

are not free to change operators due to mobile number hurdles, but MNP will

change that. The churn will increase, and this provides a great opportunity for

us as a small operator. We intend to continue with our offerings of innovative

and relevant services, targeting a single group of users and delivering

specifically to their needs which we believe is the key in helping operators

hold the margins."

Virgin has tied up with Hungama and Sony BMG for more choices in music, both

Bollywood and international. It is further looking at an applications store

model or an open model; and is also open to outsourcing. Having launched its

V-Flash HSIA services offering at twenty times faster speed of up to 3.1Mbps

with wireless broadband, and having seen what a huge opportunity this presents

as compared to fixed broadband penetration which is lower in India, in the next

eighteen to twenty-four months, Virgin will be concentrating on improving these

offerings as well.

Talking about the handset segment, Heywood says that while Virgin would

continue launching its CDMA handsets, it would now also try and provide lower

priced handsets for its GSM customers according to their needs and market

fluctuations.

Beryl M



berylm@cybermedia.co.in