News 2002
Virgin Mobile attracts 1.5 million customers
28/01/2002
- UK's newest operator continues to buck market trend and sees growth continue to accelerate
- Virgin Mobile number one choice in Tesco
It is less than a month since the company reported its best-ever fourth quarter results for 2001; it closed the year with 1.44 million customers. Since then, it has attracted another 56,000 people onto its network.
It is just seven months since Virgin Mobile passed the one million customer mark. This compares to the twelve months it took the company to reach its first 500,000 customers. The ever-increasing popularity of Virgin Mobile is at odds with the rest of the industry which has seen a dramatic decline in the rate of sales over the past six months.
The company predicts that it was the largest provider of pre-pay phones in the UK over the final quarter of 2001 and will continue into 2002* in terms of net growth. This comes at a time when the other four networks attempt to lock-in consumers by selling them 12-month contracts. Virgin Mobile's advantage of allowing customers to buy their phone on pre-pay then switch to paying monthly if they choose, but without having to sign a contract, is paying dividends particularly in retailers such as supermarkets. There, older networks, with their focus on getting consumers to sign-up for 12 months, are finding it tough, if not impossible, to sell contract-based phones.
Graeme Hutchinson, sales director of Virgin Mobile, said: "We are continuing to accelerate while our competitors are stalling. Clearly our combination of cheap calls, great value phones with no contracts, nor monthly line rental is proving to be what the British public wants.
"Thanks to the support of our many retail partners, we now outsell our competition in several outlets - in particular significant sales in Tesco have helped Virgin Mobile achieve this landmark. We are proud of our achievement: we have virtually doubled our rate of growth over the past year, in a market which is around four times less than it was twelve months ago."
Notes
* To date, other than Virgin Mobile, only One 2 One has declared its 2001 Q4 results which showed lower overall net new growth than Virgin Mobile.
For further information please contact:
Press office on 0845 600 6272 or pressoffice@virginmobile.com
Joanne Baker - 07941 233300
Alison Bonny - 07802 430276
Steven Day - 07931 777777
Consolidated Communications:
Debra Burtt - 0207 208 2714
Sasha Bradbury - 0207 208 2708
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 1.5 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, the first company in the world to introduce an integrated MP3 mobile phone and the first company to offer all of its customers a content-rich voice portal with the launch of its 4321 service.
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, Co-op, Asda, Somerfield, John Lewis, Littlewoods, Morrisons, Argos, The Link, Dixons and Carphone Warehouse.
