Virgin's entry in Indian telecom network-Provides more benifits to youth

Get paid for attending incoming calls........When somebody mentions this, I would either think they are out of their mind or they are drunk. But in this case you have to believe me(As i'm neither). I was surprised when I saw this interesting news on a popular mobile magazine. The new revolution in Indian telecom networks.....One of the popular network providers in UK is here in indian market now, to provide better features and compete with leading providers like Bharathi Airtel,Vodafone(previously was Hutch)etc..It entered the Indian market with a different strategy. According to the chairman of Virgin Mobiles Sir Richard Branson this strategy aimed at attracting the youth(which is vital for any market,specially where india is concerned.)

I feel I can provide better information about this in the form of Q&A

• Are they collaborating with any existing network providers or they are starting a new network?
  

The Virgin Mobiles is being introduced in india by Tata tele services,which is well known for its CDMA network(With the name “Tata Indicom”)

• Does it mean all Tata indicom subscribers will be shifted to Virgin mobiles?
  

The answer would be “No”. They are not going to touch the existing users of Tata indicom. At the same time, even if any tata indicom user wants to shift also, he can't do that. For that he should get a new Virgin connection. Tata indicom and virgin are two seperate networks provided by the same provider.

• Is it a GSM Network or CDMA?
  

It is CDMA network provider, but it introduced some handsets which contain RUIM(Removable user identity module) .To make people understand I can mention RUIM as SIM of CDMA network.

• What are the advantages of choosing Virgin?
  

These are the advantages with this Network
(a) Every time you attend a call, That will add 10 paise to your balance
(b) If you can spend Rs 18/- out of your purse every month,you can get 100 messages per day free and also less local call rates on the weekends(39 paise,be it mobile or landline. Weekend means friday,saturday.sunday here). In normal package you have to pay Rs 1/- for local(for first 2 mins).After 2 mins you can call any local network for 50 paise(No extra charge). We can be more clear about it's package once it gets announced officially.
(c)All vergin mobile's RUIM's will have a secret folder where you can store personal messages with password protection.
(d)V Bytes-This is the option enabled on every vergin mobile,which takes you to the V bytes portal just by one touch.Mind you,This is applicable only for Branded Vergin mobiles.

• From where can I get a Virgin connection?
  

It's introduced only in 50 main cities(17 sectors) in india. It will take some time for it to spread its network across the country. First check whether your city is there in the list provided in the website or not. If it is there, then you can go to the retailer in your respective city and get new connection. If it is not in the list, you may have to wait for some more time.

• What type of handsets they are offering?
  

At present they have announced 5 different colour handsets

• V Bling
• V Sleek
• V kewl
• V Trendy(which is yet to be announced)
• Nokia 2505
• V Swing

These handsets range is from Rs 1999/- to Rs 4799/-,which include handsets having MP3 player. FM Radio,1.3 MP camera etc...We can expect better kind of handsets from Virgin mobile in future.

see more about the handsets here

• Where can i get more information about Virgin mobiles?
  

You can visit Virgin mobile's official website or can search on some popular web encyclopedias like Wikipedia.

• What is it’s growth strategy ?
  

It might use the technique of MVNO(Mobile virtual network operator),which was used by it in other countries and became successful. This means that, it will buy space from other network providers and sell it under their name.

See Vergin mobile press release here(Pdf)

I hope my attempt of clearing your doubts regarding this matter has been successful. If not, I would be more than happy to answer your questions or to get your feedback.