Virgin Mobile the Pseudo MVNO offering by Tata teleservices Ltd. will be merged into the parent operator body Tata Docomo with effect from tomorrow. Virgin mobile was established in 2008 as a separate brand name by TTSL with focus on the youth which was its target subscriber base.
Virgin mobile quickly gained popularity among the young population of mobile users with its unique offering of earning talktime by receiving incoming calls. Virgin only offered prepaid service on both GSM and CDMA platforms with no postpaid option. Now 7 years after its initial launch TTSL has decided to merge the brand into its mainstream offering of Tata Docomo.
Existing subscribers of Virgin mobile will be auto migrated to Tata Docomo without needing to change the sim card. Any existing talktime balance will also be carried forward. The switch will happen tomorrow 27th March 2015. Tata seems to be getting its act together by unifying all its telecom offerings under one roof. Next in line may be its other pseudo-MVNO offering in partnership with future group under the brand name of T24. TTSL may even be looking to merge Tata Indicom which is its subsidiary operating on CDMA platform in Delhi and Tata Teleservices Maharashtra Ltd. which is its re-branding of Huges telecom which it bought out in 2002.
Earlier we reported to you how the RBI has rejected Tata group's proposal to buy out the 26% stake in TTSL held by Docomo at half the price of the initial investment in 2009 and wants it to buy the stake only at the current fair market value, which has led Tata group and NTT Docomo into international court for arbitration.