Type Subsidiary of Optus Website virginmobile.com.au Founder Richard Branson Number of employees 400 (2014) Parent organization Optus | Key people David Scribner, CEO Headquarters Sydney, Australia Founded 31 October 2000 Acquisition date January 12, 2006 | |
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Products Prepaid and Postpaid Mobile Phones, Broadband CEO David Scribner (Apr 2013–) Profiles | ||
Vodafone vs virgin mobile australia
Virgin Mobile Australia (VMA) is a telecommunications company based in Sydney.
Contents
- Vodafone vs virgin mobile australia
- History
- Network
- Products
- Mobile broadband
- Customer Perception
- Marketing
- Corporate sponsorships
- References
It was founded by Richard Branson in 2000, and although it became a wholly owned subsidiary of Optus in 2006, it maintains its own brand identity, customer service, management structure and staff.
Virgin Mobile offers prepaid and postpaid mobile phone and mobile broadband services to approximately one million customers in Australia.
History
Virgin Mobile was founded in October 2000 as a 50/50 business partnership between Virgin Mobile UK and Optus, using the Optus network infrastructure but with Virgin management of all aspects of the customer experience including branding of products, customer service and billing. Virgin Mobile was Australia's first Mobile Virtual Network Operator.
In January 2006, Optus bought all other shares in the business, and Virgin Mobile became a wholly owned subsidiary of Optus. A long-term licensing agreement was established for the business to continue trading under the Virgin brand. Optus merged Virgin Mobile with its subsidiaries SIMPlus and M8 in April 2006.
Network
Virgin Mobile uses the Optus Network for all of its Australian-based services. This network reaches 98.5% of people in Australia and operates on the following frequencies:
Products
Virgin Mobile sell a number of telecommunications products:
They offer a range of mobile phones with their plans, including products from Apple, Samsung, Sony, HTC, Nokia and others. They also offer SIM-only services.
They sell their products online, over the phone and throughout 75 branded retail outlets across Australia.
Mobile broadband
Virgin's wireless broadband service was first launched in 2007, offering a package of 4GB of data at claimed speeds of up to 700kbit/s, and unlimited phone calls to landlines Australia-wide as well as Virgin Mobile mobiles. It uses an Option Globesurfer 7.2 modem, which includes an RJ11 jack for the connection of a regular PSTN landline telephone, an Ethernet jack for connection of a computer, as well as inbuilt 802.11g WiFi for wireless access by multiple computers.
Each customer of Virgin Broadband is assigned a landline phone number on which they can receive incoming calls (with callers being charged rates as if they were calling a regular landline number). Although the modem accesses the internet and places calls through Optus' mobile network, it must still only be used within a zone around the customer's registered address. According to Virgin Broadband, this is because of rules from the Australian Communications and Media Authority that prevent geographic landline numbers from being assigned to mobile services.
In late 2007, Virgin Mobile changed the Virgin Broadband offer for new customers, halving the data allowance to 2GB as well as comprehensively re-writing their acceptable use policy.
Customer Perception
In early 2008, technology media reported that Virgin Mobile was having difficulty bringing problems with its parent company's network and its modems under control, and its customer call centres had wait times of 90 minutes or longer.
Comments accumulating on customer-review websites through 2008 indicate that Virgin Broadband is failing to deliver on its promises. Users cite repeated drop-outs on the home phone service, poor performance and even complete lack of connection on the internet service, and long delays and conflicting information from the customer support line.
Marketing
Since its inception, VMA has been associated with several award-winning advertising campaigns and is a company connected to a very strong international brand.