News 1999
Virgin Mobile Challenges Orange to Live Up To Its Promises
22/11/1999
Virgin Mobile has challenged Hans Snook, chief executive of Orange, to put his money where his mouth is.
In an Orange promise, Snook claims that Orange will match a rival's tariff if it offers better value. Virgin Mobile believes that Orange will not do this for all its 3.4 million customers - yet challenges it to match Virgin Mobile's cheap and simple tariff.
Orange's promise reads: 'We believe we offer you the best value mobile phone tariffs available. In fact, we're so confident of this that if you think a popular digital package available from another network would suit you better than an Orange Talk Plan, we promise to charge you in exactly the same way - right down to the international call charges, answer phone charges, itemised billing charges, non-direct debit payments and so on. Orange Value Promise excludes promotional and prepay tariffs and pay upfront packages.'
Richard Branson, chairman of Virgin Mobile, said: 'Orange promises its customers that it will match a rival's tariff if it offers better value. Virgin Mobile's tariff - the simplest, cheapest, and only no-catch deal in the UK - does. So let's see Hans Snook and Orange live up to their promise.
'Orange has millions of customers who each agree to pay hundreds of pounds a year even before they get to make a call. That's hardly good value. Virgin Mobile does not demand that people sign up to a yearly contract just to get access to our service - we only charge people for the calls they make, when they make them.
'So today we throw down our fair-deal gauntlet and challenge Orange. Honour your price promise. It's time to end the rip-off. Come clean with your customers. Match our cheap prices if you dare. You promised. There can be no excuses.'
Around 2.4 million of Orange's customers are on contracts, earning the company an average of £485 per customer per year. The cheapest monthly tariff is currently Talk 30 which costs £17.50 (£210 a year). It includes 30 free minutes a month. This means those 'free' minutes are effectively costing customers £17.50/30 = 58p a minute.
Virgin Mobile saves the typical mobile user at least a third off their call bill. Handsets are not subsidised, so it doesn't need to rely on confusion to trick consumers into paying more than they think they are paying - unlike every other network.
Virgin Mobile costs 15p a min for the first 10 mins each day, 10p a min for the next 10 minutes of each day, 5p a min after that (up to 23 hours 40 mins a day) and there's no charge for retrieving voicemails.
For further information please contact:
Steven Day:
020 7 4844322 or 07931 777 777
Alison Bonny:
020 7 4844323 or 07941 204 418
