Virgin of the airwaves battles to win over extra customers

From the archive, first published Thursday 2nd Feb 2006.

Controversial supermodel Kate Moss was recruited to advertise Virgin Mobile's pay monthly contract in its bid to pick up more customers.

Virgin Mobile gained an extra 193,000 active customers in the last quarter, which it said was driven by a high level of pre-pay connections at Christmas as well as "continued growth" in the number of general contracts.

However, the number of customers gained by Virgin Mobile in the period was fewer than in the last three months of 2004 when 276,000 joined the network. Well over half its revenue growth had been generated from the pre-pay segment, it said, with average revenues per customer rising to £123.

Income from text messaging and other non-voice services made up 32.6 per cent of revenue from services - a figure which is unchanged quarter on quarter.

Virgin Mobile's contract phones were initially available through Carphone Warehouse outlets but have now expanded to The Link, Virgin Megastore and concessions in WHSmith branches - with more expansion planned for later in 2006.

A spokesman said that while the Kate Moss advert had only aired for the last week of 2005 after making its debut on primetime ITV on December 24, it had been available on the internet a week earlier, and been surrounded by a fortnight of strong publicity.

Virgin Mobile, which is a "virtual operator" using the network of T-Mobile, is currently considering a takeover offer worth £961m from NTL.

Archive Home