News 2005
UK Mobile operators combine forces in aid of Dec Tsunami Quake Appeal
01/01/2005
London. 1 January 2005. In response to events in Asia, the UK’s major mobile operators have joined forces for the first time to create a tax free donation mechanism. In conjunction with aggregator WIN, the networks have made it possible for UK mobile phone owners to make a donation to the disaster relief fund, co-ordinated by the Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC).
Customers of 3, O2, Orange, T-Mobile, Virgin Mobile and Vodafone can text “DONATE” to 83321 so that £1.50 is added to their bill or deducted from their credit. All money is donated to DEC with no charges applied.
For more information please call:
Alison Bonny, Virgin Mobile – 07802 430276
David Macdonald, Orange Media Centre – 07968 381696
Notes to Editors
3
3 is the fastest growing mobile network in the UK and announced in August 2004 it had over 1.2million customers on its network. The growing customer base demonstrates the robustness and reliability of its 3G network.
As well as 80% video mobile coverage, 3 has over 99% population coverage for voice and text services through a national roaming agreement.
O2
mmO2 has 100% ownership of mobile network operators in three countries - the UK, Germany and Ireland - as well as leading mobile Internet portal business. All of these businesses are branded as O2. Additionally, the company has operations on the Isle of Man (Manx Telecom) and owns O2 Airwave - an advanced, digital emergency communications service.
mmO2 was the first company in the world to launch and rollout a commercial GPRS (or 2.5G) network and has secured third generation mobile telephony ("3G") licences in the UK, Ireland and Germany.
mmO2 has more than 20 million customers and some 13,000 employees. It reported revenues for the year ended 31 March 2003 of £4.874 billion. Data represented 20.9% of total service revenues in the quarter ending 30 December 2003.
Orange
Orange and wirefree and any other Orange product or service names included in this material are trademarks of Orange PCS. The Orange group is one of the world’s largest mobile communications companies and a subsidiary of the France Telecom group, with operations in 16 countries across Europe and beyond. It provides a broad range of personal communications services, including Orange GSM1800 services and other digital cellular telephone services. Within the Orange Group, the Orange brand operates in the UK, France, Switzerland, Romania, Slovakia, Thailand, the Ivory Coast, the Dominican Republic, Cameroon, the Netherlands, Botswana, and Madagascar. The Orange group also has controlled operations in Belgium (Mobistar). The Orange group has a joint controlling interest in Egypt (MobiNil) and minority interests in Portugal (Optimus) and Austria (One). As at the end of September 2004, Orange was the largest mobile operator in both the UK with 13.9 million active customers, and France with 20.6 million registered customers. As at the end of September 2004, Orange controlled companies had over 52 million customers worldwide. Orange, along with TIM, Telefonica and T-Mobile, is a founding member of the FreeMove alliance. Further information about Orange can be found on the Orange website at www.orange.com.
T-Mobile
T-Mobile International is one of the world’s leading companies in mobile communications. By Q3 of 2004, more than 109 million people were using the mobile communications services provided by companies in which T-Mobile or Deutsche Telekom have a majority or minority stake. And all that over a common technology platform based on GSM, the world’s most successful digital wireless standard. This also makes T-Mobile the only mobile communications provider with a seamless transatlantic service.
T-Mobile UK, the fastest growing UK network, currently has 15.2 million customers. Its UK network covers over 99% of the UK population and currently offers roaming on 370 networks in 163 countries, including the USA. T-Mobile UK has 1,900 Wi-Fi locations, giving customers the largest UK Wi-Fi network as well as the largest network in Europe and the USA. www.t-mobile.co.uk
Virgin Mobile
Virgin Mobile Holdings (UK) plc, the UK's largest mobile virtual network operator, is majority owned by Sir Richard Branson's Virgin Group and uses T-Mobile's network. Since its launch in November 1999, Virgin Mobile has attracted more than 4.6 million customers.
In the UK, Virgin Mobile phones are available direct on 0845 6000 600; on the web at www.virginmobile.com or on the High Street at approximately 5,000 outlets including Virgin Mobile Specialist Stores, Virgin Megastores, Sainsbury, Tesco, Safeway, Asda, John Lewis, Littlewoods, Argos, The Link, Dixons, Carphone Warehouse, Curry's, Comet, Phones 4 U, TOMO, Woolworths, Toys R Us and Rymans.
Virgin Mobile employs approximately 1,400 staff at three sites, Trowbridge, London and Daventry, and has an outsourced customer service centre operated by approximately 200 staff in Middlesbrough. It has been voted one of the top 50 places to work in Britain for two years running in an annual Financial Times survey.
Virgin Mobile's customers are considered the most satisfied in the pre-pay sector according to a recent UK survey by market researchers JD Power and Associates.
Vodafone
Vodafone UK's participation in the text donation scheme is a separate initiative from Vodafone Group's announcement (30/12/04) of a £1million donation to the Asian Tsunami disaster. Vodafone UK has 14.6 million customers and is part of the world’s largest mobile community. The Newbury-based company offers a wide range of mobile voice and data communications. The Vodafone UK network covers 99% of the population and transmits over 17.5 million text messages every day. Vodafone UK was the world’s first mobile operator to introduce, texing, pre-pay phones and international roaming, and currently customers can use their phones on 400 networks in 169 countries. In May 2004, Vodafone UK was ranked top for customer satisfaction in the UK's contract mobile phone sector in a survey by JD Power and Associates.
