After a whirlwind three years of operations in India, Tata Teleservices and UK Based Virgin Mobile have decided to part ways and cut short their alliance with Tata buying out the remaining 50% stake in the joint venture. Virgin Mobiles started operations in India as a virtual network operator in 2008 and quickly caught the attention of the youth thanks to its eye catching promos and whacky offers. It was initially launched as a CDMA service and then moved on to GSM as well after Tata got licenses for GSM operations.
Virgin Mobile will continue to exist in India as a brand though for which Tata would be paying an undisclosed amount in royalty. What would not be there is the presence of Virgin as an entity which will share revenue with Tata. The reason for the move is believed to be Tata’s recent tie up with Japan’s DoCoMo and the launch of the Tata DoCoMo brand in India. It is also learnt that Tata was on the path to integrate all its telecom businesses under one umbrella for better governance. Amidst all this, the alliance with Virgin seemed a misfit.
Like we said the Virgin brand will remain unaffected in India for the time being (for at least three years we hear) so you won’t miss those catchy ads anyway. If you were a Richard Branson fan however, you might be disappointed because he’ll make less frequent trips to India now.
