Posts Tagged ‘virgin mobile’

O2 dips hand in the cookie jar

Sunday, February 15th, 2009

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LG has released details of their Cookie handset coming to the O2 network, exclusively in the exclusive favourite of O2’s whitest of whites stock coloured brand.

We’re now led to believe by LG this will be the UK’s most affordable phone, in the category of touch screen handsets. Obtaining a mobile by means of theft would surely then make a mobile ‘the’ most affordable phone in the UK, although this might open up an entirely new category all by itself. Not that we’re condoning theft in anyway shape or form, from WIFI to even music - just in case any Daily Mail readers were thinking of starting up a grass roots campaign against us.

This latest colour to appear matches other so-called exclusive colour ranges of the Cookie, with the likes of pink and silver versions of LG’s mobile solely appearing on the Orange network last month. Absent from their range strangely enough is the colour Orange, which is as much associated with that network as their staple colour as white is with O2. Virgin Mobile also carries the LG handset in black, which is more suited to the phone than all the others in our most humble opinion.

Lucky Goldstar’s Cookie, also known by the much less exciting name of the KP500 or KP501 is a 3-inch fully touch screen based mobile with EDGE capabilities, just to refresh your memory.

LG does firmly believe touch screen mobiles will be the key choice of handsets this year, which could indicate there will be more on the way from them *cough*

From the end of March, the White version of the Cookie will be on O2 for the princely sum of £99.99 on pay as you go.

Virgin’s going cheap

Tuesday, February 10th, 2009

Virgin Mobile is launching today (9th Feb 2009) a tarrif for £8.50 per month which includes a phone, 100 minutes and 100 texts. Internet costs extra at 30p per day (so that’s about £9 per month extra if used every day).

The phones available are the Samsung G600 and the LG KC550 which both have 5MP cameras. The Nokia 3120 is also available for those wanting 3G Internet access. Those chosing the Samsung or Nokia also get 6 months free Instant Messaging. Users also get free voicemail.

The plan is pretty low-end but will appeal to casual phone users who just want the comfort of having a mobile phone to hand, if using excessive data, it’s probably a better idea to get a more expensive deal with a data add-on which will bring the overall cost down.

Virgin haven’t stated what IM will cost after 6 months, but it’s probably just Internet access at 30p per day.

30 peas

Monday, December 22nd, 2008

Virgin Mobile on the heals of their 30p per day mobile broadband tariff have released a video called 30 peas (as in a pod).

The idea is that if you can get all the internet for 30p, imagine what you can get with 30 peas.

The video’s available on YouTube

Virgin Mobile has NO business arsing about with Mobile Broadband

Wednesday, October 1st, 2008

I see that Virgin Media/Mobile has launched a Mobile Broadband dongle.

They have NO business doing this.

No business at all.

THIS from a company that charges 0.5 pence per Kb for mobile data to handsets.

THIS from a company that still has ‘SEE ABOVE FOR WAP CHARGES‘ on it’s tariff page.

WAP charges?

Virgin Mobile is stuck in the dark ages. Clearly if you’re using Virgin Mobile, you don’t use the internet on-the-go. Or if you do, you’re a total numbskull.

You can get 3GB on a mobile dongle from Virgin for £15/month.

Pay As You Go will set you back FIVE FLOCKING POUNDS per megabyte. PER MEGABYTE!

Pay Monthly (or all the other bollocks price plans that they offer — Daily Bonus, Pay By Direct Debit, Liberty SIM) is TWO FLOCKING POUNDS per megabyte.

No business. NO BUSINESS whatsoever coming to market with a mobile broadband dongle.

Get your mobile data tariffs sorted first.

THEN come back and we’ll have a chat. Right?

Virgin Mobile gets £366m writedown

Thursday, August 7th, 2008

Ouch. It looks like Virgin Media’s mobile arm has let the side down if the latest set of quarterly results is anything to go by: the company has announced a massive goodwill writedown on Virgin Mobile in its second quarter financials. In short, Virgin Mobile is now worth £366 million less than originally thought in goodwill terms.

Such writedowns are a bit of a nebulous beast – who can really guess how much people’s warm and fuzzy feelings are worth towards a brand? – but wiping £366 million off Virgin Mobile’s value, even if it is purely on paper, has got to smart a bit.

That said, it doesn’t look like this is a major blow for Virgin Mobile. The decision to go ahead with the writedown comes as a result of declining values for mobile phone companies across the board, according to Virgin Media. Virgin Mobile’s got a few other reasons to be cheerful too: the company is planning to get into the tasty 3G data market, it’s doing better selling mobile contracts to cable customers and it’s squeezing more cash from its pre-pay customers as well as adding more post-pay users. It might be a knock, but Virgin shouldn’t have any difficulty in putting it behind them.

Virgin Mobile USA’s $79.99 unlimited offer

Wednesday, June 25th, 2008

Got this from the Virgin Mobile USA release…

For many Americans these days, expenses seem a lot more “unlimited” than wireless phone offers. With the cost of gas, air travel and other items, it seems the sky is the limit for what we have to spend. That’s why Virgin Mobile USA will unveil its new “Totally Unlimited” calling plan for $79.99 on July 1, the lowest priced and first unlimited nationwide calling plan without roaming charges or an annual contract that can be purchased by cash or credit.

$79.99… that’s just over forty UK pounds. Fantastic deal. And what’s more, if you add on $10 extra, you get unlimited text and picture messages…

Helio and Virgin to merge

Wednesday, June 25th, 2008

It looks like the axe is about to fall on US MVNO Helio. According to the Financial Times’s sources, Virgin Mobile USA is to merge with the SK Telecom-owned operator, with a deal to be announced as early as this week.

The FT says Virgin Mobile and Helio will combine, Virgin Mobile will issue new shares and SK Telecom will end up holding 20 percent of the new company. We’ve been expecting some sort of union between the two comanies for a while, after both have struggled in the last few years and a combination could give them the heft they need to make a more substantial impact in the US market. Still, bit of a shame to see Helio go - it always seemed like it had more potential.

How Facebook friends can get you free calls

Friday, May 23rd, 2008

In the US and want free minutes? Time to install a new Facebook application. It’s called Fund My Phone and it’s part of Virgin Mobile USA’s Sugar Mama service, which lets customers rack up free minutes, usually by sitting through advertising.

Fund My Phone works slightly differently: it gives you free minutes if you encourage all your Facebook mates to endure some advertising spots. Free-minutes-seekers install the application, tell all their friends about it, and for every four mates that watches a one minute trailer of some sort and gives their feedback, free minutes get sent back to the original user.

In principle, it’s a canny idea but how many of people’s Facebook friends are more than vague acquaintances they added to boost their friends list and make themselves look popular? Asking them to watch some adverts for you should separate the wheat from the chaff and you might even get some free airtime out of it to boot.


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