News 2003
Virgin Mobile smashes 3 million customer barrier
15/08/2003
Virgin Mobile today announced that it has 3,000,000 customers, confirming its position as the fastest growing network ever seen in Britain.
Since its launch less than four years ago, it has continued to break performance records.
- Financially, it was fastest operator in Britain to break into profit (in its third year of trading)
- So far in 2003, it has outclassed every other network by attracting more new customers than Orange, O2, 3, T-Mobile and Vodafone put together. According to declared results to date, collectively, they have lost 39,000 customers, whereas Virgin Mobile has added 485,000
- And now, Virgin Mobile claims the record of being the fastest operator to attract 3,000,000 customers. By comparison, it took Vodafone and O2 12 and 13 years respectively.
Table 1
Network Years to reach 3m
Virgin Mobile <4
Vodafone 12
02 (BT Cellnet) 13
Orange 5
T-Mobile 6
(Source: Vodafone.co.uk, btplc.co.uk, orange.co.uk, company.monster.co.uk/o2ouk)
The figures prove beyond doubt that Virgin Mobile has become a major and long-term player in the UK mobile phone industry.
Virgin Mobile pioneered the concept of a mobile virtual network when it launched, using T-Mobile’s network to provide airtime to its customers – an approach which others have since attempted to copy. Virgin Mobile’s customer base is now equivalent to around a third of its host network’s own-brand subscriber base. This demonstrates both the success of Virgin Mobile as a business, and the MVNO model which it pioneered with its partner T-Mobile.
Virgin Mobile’s Sir Richard Branson said: “Attracting our three millionth customer so quickly is such an awesome achievement. And our rate of growth this year is quite simply staggering when you compare it to our rivals – they have stagnated and collectively lost customers. Virgin Mobile in contrast has attracted almost half a million new people to its great-value service.
“Virgin Mobile is ripping market share out of a staid industry. We’ve concentrated on giving customers what they want – flair, fashion and fun, as well as a great deal and award-winning customer service.”
