Virgin Mobile poised to launch MVNO in China
By Evan Blass 
posted Apr 8th 2006 9:00AM
posted Apr 8th 2006 9:00AM
Interfax
China is reporting that Virgin Mobile is close to signing a partnership with wireless carrier China Unicom that would
make the UK-based company the first foreign MVNO in post-WTO China. Although Virgin would still require approval from
the Chinese government, which carefully scrutinizes all proposed foreign business presences, the company will benefit
from past deals in which Spain's Telefonica and Germany's Vodafone have made invesments in domestic telecom firms.
Virgin already has offices in Shanghai, and CEO Richard Branson recently told reporters to expect a Chinese launch this
fall, so it would seem pretty likely that this venture, which is well over a year in the making, has the necessary
government support to proceed.
Branson once told me that he went up to a cop and told him he wanted to conquer the world....thats not a crime
please oh please use their CDMA network! I have a couple of Virgin phones from the US that I would like to use in Shanghai, and this seems like the time to do it. Or if they use GSM, then they better offer GPRS, because I need an alternative for China Mobile as their coverage hardly touches where I live, while China Unicom consistently gives me full bars- with no GPRS, which my Sharp phone needs for internet. Or, better yet, get 3G going, and I'll definitely switch. (Yes, I know what MVNO means- but pressure from the right people can make a lot of things happen that wouldn't otherwise happen)(And, they better not try to charge US/Canadian/UK-type rates in China- I still want to be able to get 400 minutes for only $7 a month)
I thought Richard Branson looked better dressed up as a woman for his Virgin Brides venture http://yahoo.businessweek.com/1998/43/art43/bw43105.jpg