Branson to unveil $75m S’African mobile JV soon

Sneeky

Sneeky

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• Monday, October 31, 2005
British entrepreneur Richard Branson will unveil a 500 million-rand ($74.63 million) deal to break into South Africa’s cell phone market by the end of 2005 and also aims to launch a Virgin-branded financial services firm next year.
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“The cost of making a phone call in South Africa is exorbitant and we plan to do something about it,” he said in an interview during a visit to a makeshift gym in Alexandra, where he presented its young owner with state-of-the-art weight machines and dumb bells.
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Virgin has bid with South Africa’s Vodacom, majority-owned by fixed-line carrier Telkom, to buy a controlling stake in Nigeria’s third biggest mobile operator Vmobile, giving it an entry to one of the world’s fastest growing telecom markets.
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Branson said he expected to list Virgin Mobile in the U.S. in 2006.
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I suggest you use IE to view this link, doesnt seem to be firefox friendly.
http://www.thetidenews.com/article.aspx?qrDate=10/31/2005&qrTitle=Branson%20to%20unveil%20$75m%20S%E2%80%99African%20mobile%20JV%20soon&qrColumn=BUSINESS
 
as far as i know, they have basically signed a deal with CellC to use their network and resell packages. they will not become the 4th cell operator.

i think the term is Virtual Service Provider, which is not-legal in SA as far as I know.

have a look at google
 
I wouldn't hold my breath for this. As far as I know, Virgin is partnering with Cell C to act as a virtual cell operator, i.e. the infrastructure will be Cell C's network, but under the Virgin brand.
 
They will be a Virtual Service Provider, correct, and it will become legal soon if it is not become so already. Nashua (or AutoPage. Cant remember which) will also become a Virtual Service Provider.
Virtual Service Provider's do normally bring down costs for consumers, so this should be great
 
I don't really care where he positions virgins cellphone offering the point is someone with a lot of media clout is saying this:

“The cost of making a phone call in South Africa is exorbitant and we plan to do something about it,”

When Virgin anounces it's launch by making an opening statement which is a direct attack on Telkom, it can only be a good thing
 
I have a great deal of confidence in Richard Branson. I think he could do a great deal of good in SA. So his statement is great news.
 
Can we not somehow get him interested in broadband, Get him and Shuttleworth on our side and create something to shock the hell out of TELKOM ?
 
Why not just ask him to become the head of telkomsa ? A man with such vision would have sa on the fast track and inlien with the rest of the world . But alas he does not work according to the african way .

for example , our petrol prices are high , but we are told that elsewhere it is more expensive , the list goes on we are told how we are just keeping up with current trends around the world , but alas telkom does not fall into this area we are just getting less for more . Surely the man has a webpage would be great to inform him on how stupid adsl is in sa and how much he could do for it in sa , and how much money he would make aswell . If Virgin ever came to sa in anyway shape or form it would only mean great things for the consumers and not for the fat cats .

This man has the insight which we lack , llok at the name and brand he has created ! Respect!!!! Now please get this man to set up something that WOULD be direct compitition for telkom , we all know he would get almost every single adsl subscriber to join virgin .
 
pupa said:
Can we not somehow get him interested in broadband, Get him and Shuttleworth on our side and create something to shock the hell out of TELKOM ?
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Melikes! :D
 
I would agree that RB is an excellent person to bring some competition to the market here.

I am a big fan of the man and I believe that if Virgin do well with Cell C they will break into broadband, just like Virgin.net in the UK. (who were my ISP and great)

Bet your bottom dollar that if Virgin were to introduce a broadband service here RB wouldn't take **** from Telkom. He's fought BA and won before and if THAT doesn't give us poor ADSL users some glimmer of hope then I don;t know what will..

RB has strong SA connections and he's done a lot of good for consumers in the past. I say let RB have all the support he can have. We should all send him a big thank you note.. :) </gushing>
 
schitz011 said:
RB has strong SA connections and he's done a lot of good for consumers in the past. I say let RB have all the support he can have. We should all send him a big thank you note.. :) </gushing>
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Agreed! Good on ya, Sir Richard :D
 
schitz011 said:
I would agree that RB is an excellent person to bring some competition to the market here.

I am a big fan of the man and I believe that if Virgin do well with Cell C they will break into broadband, just like Virgin.net in the UK. (who were my ISP and great)

Bet your bottom dollar that if Virgin were to introduce a broadband service here RB wouldn't take **** from Telkom. He's fought BA and won before and if THAT doesn't give us poor ADSL users some glimmer of hope then I don;t know what will..

RB has strong SA connections and he's done a lot of good for consumers in the past. I say let RB have all the support he can have. We should all send him a big thank you note.. :) </gushing>
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i agree, this is one man that telkom don't want to get in a legal wrangle with. if they do, well that says alot about their lack of intelligence. add to that, he has more business sense than they collectively could ever hope to have
 
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