In Mumbai Hilton, Sir Richard Branson announces Virgin Mobile's hookup with Tata Teleservices to target the youth market. On Mar. 2, after Sir Richard Branson gratified the local media with his antics—he scaled the face of the Hilton Towers in Mumbai—the Virgin Group founder climbed down to announce his biggest move in India yet. He has become a franchisee of Tata Teleservices, a domestic telecom player providing CDMA cellular services. This is Virgin's third India play after Virgin Air's India routes and a radio station, Fever 104 FM. And it's Virgin Mobile's seventh telecom market. Others include the U.S., France, and South Africa.
Virgin Mobile's Indian service is targeting the 400 million Indians between the ages of 13 and 30 who, Branson says, the country's current telecom operators have been ignoring. Hence Virgin Mobile 's catchy tagline: Think hatke, Mumbai slang for "think out of the box." The company will be offering handsets by Nokia (NOK), Samsung, and Huawei Technologies, most of them black phones with red trim that will cost between $60 and $120 each. They have full-color screens and FM radio access—to listen to Fever 104, no doubt.
Virgin's team of 250 researchers spent nearly nine months studying their target audience. They discovered that Indian parents take away their children's cell phones at night and read the text messages they send or receive—something kids hate. Virgin's value-added service is offering a password-protected folder to the young so parents cannot read their messages. Great for the kids, too bad for the parents.
Virgin Mobile's Indian service is targeting the 400 million Indians between the ages of 13 and 30 who, Branson says, the country's current telecom operators have been ignoring. Hence Virgin Mobile 's catchy tagline: Think hatke, Mumbai slang for "think out of the box." The company will be offering handsets by Nokia (NOK), Samsung, and Huawei Technologies, most of them black phones with red trim that will cost between $60 and $120 each. They have full-color screens and FM radio access—to listen to Fever 104, no doubt.
Virgin's team of 250 researchers spent nearly nine months studying their target audience. They discovered that Indian parents take away their children's cell phones at night and read the text messages they send or receive—something kids hate. Virgin's value-added service is offering a password-protected folder to the young so parents cannot read their messages. Great for the kids, too bad for the parents.
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