News 2001
Virgin Mobile supplies service to Aston Villa FC for its own 'footie phone'
31/10/2001
Aston Villa Football Club - as of today - has its own Aston Villa S200 mobile phone. Sendo has designed a claret and blue Aston Villa wardrobe for its S200 GSM phone exclusively for Aston Villa Football Club. The 'footie phone' features an Aston Villa welcome and goodbye message, as well as football graphics and football menu icons.
The phone will be offered with a Virgin Mobile Pay As You Go or Pay Monthly service and costs £99.95, which includes £5 free airtime and access for Aston Villa fans to the latest team news and results via the free VirginXtras sports and news service. For those who already have a mobile subscription, the phone is also available 'sim-free' for £109.95. The Aston Villa phone is available via the Aston Villa shops or by mail order.
In addition to the football icons and graphics, Sendo's very small (89 cc) and light (98 g) S200 mobile phone offers attractive features such as downloadable ringtones, a ringtone composer, and 54 unique SMS "Smileys", all of which can be shared with others via SMS, if allowed by your network. It further offers T9® predictive text input for writing quick SMS messages and a vibrating alert.
John Greenfield, Merchandising Manager, Aston Villa FC said: "The Aston Villa phone that Sendo have designed is unique and should appeal to all of our fans. The Club is late in entering into the mobile market, and the main reason is that we wanted to ensure that we could offer our fans a product that they would clearly be happy with. We've already had feedback from our fans that the wait has been worthwhile, and as one supporter said to me on Saturday - 'these phones are top of the League'."
Andy Mallinson, head of product marketing at Virgin Mobile, said: "It has been great to work with Aston Villa and Sendo to create this partnership. It is also good news for Aston Villa fans, with Virgin Mobile they'll be able to keep up-to-the-minute with all the latest team news and results, as well as general football and sports news, with our free VirginXtras service."
"The Aston Villa phone is the perfect example of what Sendo phones have to offer in terms of customisation and personalisation," said Howard Lewis, COO of Sendo. "For Aston Villa we have entirely renewed our S200 MMI (Man Machine Interface) to continue the football theme throughout the phone software. Together with the Aston Villa changeable back and front cover, this phone is a true Aston Villa phone that every Aston Villa fan should carry with him or her."
A full range of accessories is available - a handsfree headset, an easy car kit, a leather flip case, in-car charger, leather hip pouch, and several styles of carry cases.
The Aston Villa mail order hotline is 0845 6013418.
For further information on Virgin Mobile:
Steven Day, Virgin Mobile, 07931 777777
Joanne Baker, Virgin Mobile, 07941 233300
Debra Burtt, Consolidated Communications, 07941 200 300
Sasha Bradbury, Consolidated Communications, 07941 230 700
For more information on Sendo:
Marijke van Hooren
Tel. +44 121 766 1960
Mobile +44 7968 820 701
mvanhooren@sendo.com
www.sendo.com
Marleen van Lookeren Campagne
Tel. +44 121 766 1937
Mobile +44 7968 055 470
mcampagne@sendo.com
For more information on Aston Villa:
Abdul Rashid
Tel. +44 121 327 5399
abdulr@astonvilla-fc.co.uk
www.avfc.co.uk
About Virgin Mobile:
Virgin Mobile is now established as the most successful virtual network operator in the world, and is the UK's fifth network. Since its launch in November 1999 it has attracted 1.2 million customers, making it one of the fastest growing mobile phone companies in history.
Virgin Mobile is a 50:50 joint venture company between Sir Richard Branson's Virgin Group and Deutsche Telekom's One 2 One, and is the UK's first mobile virtual operator.
It has scored a number of firsts, including being the first operator to scrap peak rate calls, introduce a daily discounting tariff and was the first company in the world to introduce an integrated MP3 mobile phone.
In the UK, Virgin Mobile phones are available direct on 0845 6000 600; on the web at www.virgin.com/mobile; or on the High Street at over 5,000 outlets including Virgin Megastore, Our Price, V.SHOP, Sainsbury, Tesco, WH Smith, Iceland, Co-op, Asda, Somerfield, John Lewis, Littlewoods, Morrisons, Phone People, Carphone Warehouse and The Link.
