Virgin Mobile France

Last updated
Virgin Mobile France
Company type Subsidiary
Industry Mobile Phones
Founded3 April 2006
Defunct18 May 2016
SuccessorRED
Headquarters France
Key people
Pascal Rialland (CEO)
Geoffroy Roux de Bezieux (Chairman)
Richard Branson (Founder)
Products Prepaid Mobile Phones
Number of employees
90
Parent SFR
Website www.virginmobile.fr

Virgin Mobile France was a cellular telephone operator in France. It launched in 2006 as a joint venture between Virgin Group and Carphone Warehouse. The company operated as a mobile virtual network operator (MVNO), whereby it did not own or operate its own mobile network but instead used the network of Orange S.A. As of June 2014, the company was the largest MVNO in France, with 1.5 million customers, and had a market share of 1.3% at the beginning of 2014. [1]

Contents

Carphone Warehouse and Virgin Group reached an agreement to sell their holdings to the French cable TV operator Numericable in June 2014 for €325 million, subject to regulatory approval. [2] The sale was completed on 5 December 2014. [3]

In November 2015, Numericable-SFR (now SFR) announced it would discontinue use of the Virgin Mobile brand, moving customers on fixed-term plans to its SFR brand, and those without contracts to its RED brand. [4]

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References

  1. Armstrong, Ashley (30 June 2014). "Carphone sells Virgin Mobile France to Numericable". The Telegraph. Retrieved 7 September 2014.
  2. Davey, James (30 June 2014). "Carphone Warehouse, Virgin agree Virgin Mobile France disposal". Reuters. Archived from the original on March 5, 2016. Retrieved 7 September 2014.
  3. "Virgin Mobile Acquisition". Numericable-SFR. 5 December 2014. Retrieved 11 December 2014.
  4. "SFR to replace Numericable brand, Virgin Mobile France will be phased out". TeleGeography. 9 November 2015. Retrieved 2 May 2016.