News 2002
Virgin Mobile trounces telecoms slump with further increase in sales
08/07/2002
The UK’s fifth network continues to accelerate in second quarter
- 171,367 net connections in Q2 2002 (compared with 143,738 in Q2 2001)
- Rate of growth increases 19.2% (Q2 2002 compared with Q2 2001)
- Net connections up 4.3% from Q1 2002 (171,367 compared with 164,223 in Q1 2002)
- Total customer numbers hit 1,781,082 (30th June 2002)
- Virgin Mobile goes into profit during Q2 2002
Virgin Mobile, the UK’s fifth network and fastest growing mobile operator, today announced it is continuing to buck slowing market trends by adding a further 171,367 net connections during the second quarter of this year. Virgin Mobile now has almost 1.8 million customers.
Despite economic volatility in the telecoms sector, the UK’s most popular consumer phone brand continues to thrive, having reported a year on year growth of 19.2%, thanks in part to increasing its distribution over the past 12 months to a total of 6,000 stores. Virgin Mobile is now the number one phone brand in sales terms in supermarkets Tesco, Sainsbury and Safeway.
Virgin Mobile also moved into profitability during the past quarter, illustrating - for a company under three years old - the strength of its business model. The company is the UK’s fastest-growing in terms of customer growth, and its low-cost, efficient, virtual operator model has enabled it to accelerate to profitability ahead of schedule. Virgin Mobile forecasts that by the end of 2002 it will have in excess of two million customers, and a positive EBITDA over £11m. With a ‘cheap calls and no line-rental’ proposition and wealth of mobile value added services, the company expects growth to continue in its pre and post pay base.
Virgin Mobile has recently announced that it believes that the advent of colour mobile screens will transform the mobile market in the UK, and will be a significant driver of the upgrade market.
Virgin Mobile’s CEO Tom Alexander said: “Despite the economic chaos in the rest of the telecoms sector, Virgin Mobile shines as a sparkling exception. Our growth continues to accelerate, we've moved into profit, and we’re looking forward to an even brighter, more colourful future.”
