"It's better to be a member." |
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| Type | subsidiary of Bell Mobility |
|---|---|
| Industry | Mobile Phones (cellular devices) |
| Founded | March 1, 2005 |
| Headquarters | Canada |
| Key people | Andrew Bridge, Managing Director |
| Products | Prepaid and Postpaid Mobile Phones |
| Parent | Bell Canada |
| Website | www.virginmobile.ca |
Virgin Mobile Canada is a cellular telephone company that was launched on March 1, 2005 as a joint venture between Virgin Group and Bell Canada. Since May 7, 2009, it is now a wholly owned subsidiary of Bell Mobility.[1] [2]
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The VirginMobile.ca domain name was registered by Virgin Enterprises Limited on July 4, 2003 with the Canadian Internet Registration Authority.[3] When accessed, it displayed a domain parking page until June 14, 2004, when it was replaced with an announcement. There was also links information about the company, related news articles, and career opportunities. Virgin claimed: "we work like maniacs to bring you Canada’s most awesome mobile phone company."[4]
Virgin Mobile launched in Canada on March 1, 2005 as a mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) using the Bell Mobility network. At the time, Virgin Mobile was operating solely as a prepaid service. The company's website showcased several feature phones it offered, and advertised itself as a "no catch" mobile operator.[5] Since its launch, Virgin used edgy and controversial advertising, leading to demands for an apology, requests to cease and desist the advertising, and even boycotts. This marketing technique is still used by Virgin Mobile Canada to this day.
In February 2008, Virgin Mobile Canada launched postpaid wireless service. This was known as 'myPlan', offering a multitude of options, including the ability to set one's own timeframe for unlimited calling, as opposed to the windows generally offered by competing mobile companies. The current slogan, "it's better to be a member", encourages Canadians to consider the postpaid services offered by Virgin Mobile.
On May 7, 2009, Bell Mobility acquired the 50% of Virgin Mobile Canada that it previously did not own for $142 million and entered into a long-term agreement to use the Virgin brand.[2] Following this, Bell greatly reduced its investments into Solo Mobile in order to invest in and improve its new Virgin brand. On December 21, 2009, Virgin Mobile Canada's then-president Robert Blumenthal promised "a very different Virgin" with "higher-value devices and services" in 2010.[6][7]
Virgin officially launched HSPA+ services on February 2, 2010. This was promoted with a launch party featuring Victoria's Secret models. The BlackBerry Bold 9700, BlackBerry Curve 8530, the iPhone 3G, iPhone 3GS, MiFi and Samsung M330 were all HSPA+ devices launched on that day. A Broadband2Go USB mobile broadband modem was also part of the launch lineup. To prepare for the back-to-school season of that year, the Virgin Mobile SuperTab was introduced on August 23 as a response to competition from other providers, especially Koodo Mobile.[8] The SuperTab is only available to postpaid customers, while HSPA+ products and services were unavailable to prepaid customers until around spring in 2011.
In response to competition from major mobile brands and new entrants, Virgin Mobile introduced a City Unlimited plan on February 18, 2011. [9] Later that year, in order to imitate Koodo Mobile's pricing, Virgin reduced Canadian long distance charges, eventually eliminating them altogether.[10] For the same reason, a plan with unlimited Canadian long distance minutes was launched by Virgin, priced identically to Koodo's equivalent offering.
The carrier is notable for being one of Canada's two carriers to exclusively carry the Galaxy Nexus smartphone for the country's Christmas and holiday season of 2011. Bell Mobility, Virgin's parent, also has this exclusivity during that time period. The flagship device from the Google Nexus series is the first in the world to run the Android 4 operating system. On November 29, Virgin invited its customers to join the Galaxy Nexus Tester Team. Each member in this team of five will receive a complimentary Galaxy Nexus, but they must tweet about their experiences with the device. The smartphone was launched on December 8, and the five Tester Team members were chosen on the following day.[11] Other Canadian carriers will sell the Galaxy Nexus in 2012.
Mobile services provided by Virgin previously only used Bell Mobilty's CDMA network. Since Bell acquired Virgin, however, the brand favoured the use of HSPA+ devices on its HSPA+ network instead. Most such devices are single-cell and experience average between 3½ and 8 Mbit/s, depending on the modem used inside the device.
Virgin Mobile offers five feature phones. Two are from LG and three are from Samsung. All of them are HSPA+ devices, expect for the Samsung Stunt which is a CDMA indication. They can be activated on either a prepaid or a postpaid plan:
Virgin Mobile offers various smartphones with the Android or BlackBerry operating systems, as well as iPhones.
All smartphones in bold are available in prepaid or postpaid packages. Other devices exclude any prepaid start-up credit.
Various services are offered by Virgin Mobile for both prepaid and postpaid customers.
Since its inception, Virgin Mobile Canada offers a prepaid plan that has no monthly fee. The price was 25¢ per local calling minute for the first five minutes each day, and 15¢ for each additional local calling minute during the rest of the day. Long distance calls from Canada to Canada or the USA are also charged at these rates, but an additional 25¢ per minute charge applies. SMS sent to Canada, USA or an e-mail address costed 10¢ per message, while international SMS was charged at the rate of 20¢ per sent message. Prepaid vouchers expired after 120 days.[12]
However, such rates have been drastically increased over time, eliminating the discounted rates when one talked on the phone for more than five minutes in a day. Current rates are now 35¢ per local minute, 70¢ per North American long distance minute, 20¢ per North American SMS sent, and 35¢ per international SMS.[13]
There are also prepaid monthly plans available from Virgin. One can pay $10/month to receive a 10¢/minute local calling rate, $15/month for unlimited sent SMS to Canadian phone numbers, or a reduced rate of $20/month for both these features. All three plans do not include any airtime, except for a promotional variant of the $20 plan which included 100 local minutes at no extra cost. Another regular $20/month plan offers 200 local minutes.[14]
Virgin now offers, and heavily promotes, its postpaid plans since 2008. More recently, the brand's talk and text plans imitate competitor Koodo' offerings, including no long distance or roaming charges for calls made from and to Canada. Virgin still has a few minor distinctions which make some of its plans unique. For example, while the $25 plan mimics Virgin's identically-priced plan, Virgin offers an unique option, allowing customers to choose either the caller ID and voicemail calling features or the SMS and BlackBerry Messenger (BBM) messaging features. Virgin's plans are available on both fixed-term contracts and the Virgin Mobile SuperTab, which closely resembles the Koodo Tab offered by Koodo Mobile.
All talk and text plans automatically include "Commitment-Free Data", a flexible data plan that imitates Koodo's pricing for its "Data Saver" add-on. The only difference in terms of pricing is that if a customer uses 0 MB with Virgin, they will pay $0, as opposed to Koodo customers who would still pay for their data add-on even if they didn't use it.
Those with BlackBerry devicese cannot use the Commitment-Free Data plan. Instead, Virgin offers unlimited BBM at no extra charge with the $35 and $50 talk and text monthly plans. Those with the $25/month can obtain the SMS and BlackBerry Messenger (BBM) messaging features at no extra charge.
Virgin Mobile members can subscribe to the same Mobile TV service offered by its parent Bell Mobility.
When Virgin Mobile launched its service in Canada on 1 March 2005, the use of "naughty nurses" in its advertising led to the Registered Nurses' Association of Ontario demanding an apology from Virgin Group chairman Richard Branson and an immediate stop to the campaign, and called on members to boycott Virgin Mobile and other Virgin products. Virgin Mobile spokeswoman Paula Lash said the company never intended to offend anyone, but nevertheless refused to withdraw the advertising.[15]
Later that year, in the December 2005 issue of youth magazine Vice, Virgin Mobile included "Super Hot Holiday" wrapping paper as part of its Hot Box phone promotion.[16] The wrapping paper contained illustrated Christmas angels, where the male angel is touching the female's breast, while the female angel has her hand on the male's genitals.[17] After receiving a complaint, Cineplex Entertainment stopped its partnership deals with Virgin Mobile. As of July 2011, the cinema chain currently partners with Telus Mobility and its brands instead.[18]
November 12, 2007 saw the launch of Virgin Unite Canada, a localised arm of Virgin Group's global charitable venture. Virgin Unite, Virgin’s global charity, has the primary objective of creating and supporting programs that foster an immediate, tangible change in the lives of people in need all around the world. The Midnight Magic fundraising gala, hosted by Sir Richard Branson, raised more than $2 million in supplies and donations to help impoverished areas of Sub-Saharan Africa.
There are also red-coloured feature phones for Virgin Mobile, branded as Re*Generation and released by Samsung as an effort to fundraise for Virgin Unite. They are similar in concept to Product Red in that the products are coloured red and a donation is made for every device purchased:
Virgin also offers a loyalty program for volunteers, where they can earn points by helping select charities. Points can be redeemed for prizes such as concert tickets.[22]During the months of June and July in 2011, Virgin Unite volunteers in Canada could redeem 500 points for any Canadian concert in Katy Perry's California Dreams Tour excluding Montreal.[23]
Since its inception, Virgin Mobile Canada has its own dedicated retail kiosks. Such booths are usually located in the middle of a mall hall, but can sometimes be found in its own corner or built as a mini-store.
Following Bell Mobility's complete acquisition of Virgin Mobile Canada in 2009, the company slowly abandoned its own Solo Mobile brand in order to prioritize its new Virgin brand. Stores that were previously dedicated to Solo, such as the one in Rideau Centre, now belong to Virgin.
Bell Canada's purchase of all The Source electronics stores allowed the company to sell its mobile brands inside most but not all of these stores. Sales began on January 4, 2010, after the chain's exclusivity agreement with Rogers Communications expired at the end of 2009. Mobile brands sold currently include those of Bell and Virgin.[24] While Solo was previously sold as well, this ended on October 2011 when Bell discontinued sales of that brand and requested that all Solo products be returned to the company.
Virgin products cannot be purchased at Bell corporate stores, and vice versa. The two brands remain separate, despite sharing a common owner.
On June 10, 2011, Virgin Group chairman Richard Branson and Glee star Cory Monteith celebrated the opening of Virgin Mobile Canada's first street-front store, located in Montreal.[25] A few days later, on June 17, a second Virgin store was built inside the MuchMusic headquarters in Toronto. This store is called "Virgin Mobile at Much".[26] The third retail store was opened in Halifax, Nova Scotia.[27]
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