Today Virgin Mobile Canada released an official statement regarding iPhone availability:

Virgin Mobile Canada will launch iPhone 3G and iPhone 3GS in Virgin Mobile Retail Stores and online in Canada in the coming months.

I’m not sure if they could have been any more vague… But at least this is an official ‘it’s coming’ statement. My buds over at MobileSyrup believe ‘coming soon’ means February 2010. I wouldn’t be surprised if that was the case, but would be pleased if it does arrive sooner… I mean, the holidays are fast approaching, you think they’d want to cash in on that?

Pricing on the 3G is expected to come in around $100 for the 8GB and $150 for the 16GB. The 3GS should run you $200 for the 16GB and $300 for the 32GB model. Of course, you’ll need to sign the standard Canadian 3-year agreement too. Ugh.

OK Virgin Mobile Canada… Sounds great. But I’ll believe it when I see it. Bring the iPhone… Bring it!

[Via: Newswire]

Remember the other day when I was telling you about a new ‘guarantee’ Virgin Mobile Canada was gearing up for? The new ‘30-Day You’ll Love Us’ guarantee is now in full effect for Canadian mobile goers. The gist of the guarantee? Try out Virgin Mobile and any of their ‘myPlan‘ contracts, and if you don’t love what you get… Return your phone for a full refund (and no cancellation charge). All you have to pay for is the usage on your device within that first 30 days, and any activation charge that may have applied. If there was no activation charge, no worries, no charge.

Key points of the guarantee:

• The phone has to be returned within 30 days of activation
• The phone has to be in like-new condition
• The phone must be brought back with the original packaging and components, along with the receipt, to the store where it was purchased.

For the whole skinny, hit up Virgin Mobile Canada > (You’ll love it)

You gotta love Virgin Mobile and their creative promos. They’re always a bit wacky/off-the-wall, but they seem to work… If nothing else they generate a fair deal of ‘buzz’ in the blogosphere.

Earlier this morning, I read about a new 30-day ‘You’ll Love Us’ Guarantee that Virgin is set to put into action. Basically, the deal is you have 30 days to try out any device on Virgin, and if you ‘haven’t fallen for us in 30 days, just return your phone and pay for the airtime used.’ Interesting. I’ve been with Rogers (NYSE: RCI) for who knows how many years now, and I haven’t fallen in love with them. Not even close. However the bigger concern to me is that if I was to ever fall in love with my wireless provider, wouldn’t that mean I have some larger issues that needed sorting out? Seems like an odd thing to fall in love with. Maybe if I should give Virgin Mobile a spin to see what all the fuss is about?

Key highlights of the new guarantee:

• You have 30- days to return your postpaid phone if you don’t love us!
• Return the phone for refund where it was purchased
• Only pay for the monthly plan charge, overages + activation fees
• No Cancellation fees within 30-days (& no minute counting)

A new site is going live for this one tomorrow, at VirginMobile.ca/loveus. All of the details will be available there. I’ll be sure to pop on over tomorrow to take a look-see and report back to you.

[Via: MobileSyrup]

Tele2 has sold its French MVNO operations to Virgin Mobile for approximately SEK 575 million ($83 million) on a debt and cash free basis. Completion is expected once all the regulatory papers are ready and that’s expected to be completed in the following months.

Under the deal, Virgin Mobile France will get Tele2 France’s approximately 429,000 customers, which will be added to Virgin Mobile’s base of 1.6 million users.

For the record, Tele2 France was a loss-making operation for Tele2. And in case you’re wondering, Virgin Mobile France is an MVNO formed as a joint venture between Virgin Group and Carphone Warehouse.

[Via: CellularNews]

In a team-up with StudentAwards.com, Virgin Mobile has launched the ‘Be Fearless’ Scholarship Awards program in Canada. It’s a back-to-school promo featuring 2 grand prizes of $1,000 each! Not bad!

To qualify, all students need to do is sign up and confirm. You must be at least 17 years old, and reside in BC, Alberta, Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, or Newfoundland. Sorry to all the folks in the Territories, Saskatchewan, Manitoba and PEI. No doing there.

For all the details hit up VirginMobile.ca.

Note: The application deadline is set for September 15th.

[Via: MobileSyrup]

Here’s a bit of good news for text message power-users out there on a budget. The texting-friendly QWERTY slider LG Rumor2 is now available from prepaid carrier Virgin Mobile USA (NYSE: VM). Sprint (NYSE: S) already offers the LG Rumor2, and now that it plans to acquire Virgin Mobile USA, the two carriers will give customers a choice when it comes to buying a Rumor2 – prepaid through Sprint or wireless contract through Virgin.

The LG Rumor2’s QVGA 240 x 320 screen, 1.3 megapixel camera, and Stereo Bluetooth support puts the text messaging handset firmly in low- to mid-end territory – which is perfect for text-happy teens. And, with Google (NSDQ: GOOG) Maps for Mobile and the Opera Mini web browser pre-loaded onto the phone, the LG Rumor2 should keep you well connected.

Virgin Mobile USA is offering the LG Rumor2 for $129.99. Radio Shack will kick off exclusive sales in September, with Best Buy, Wal-Mart and Target following in October. The best part? No contract needed.

[Via: LGCentral]

Sprint Nextel is one step closer to gobbling-up prepaid US wireless carrier Virgin Mobile USA (NYSE: VM). Following Sprint (NYSE: S)’s July 28th announcement that it would acquire Virgin Mobile USA for $483 million, the FTC has given the No. 3 US carrier the thumbs-up on the buy-out. The Federal Trade Commission announced Monday that it had ended their review of Sprint Nextel’s Virgin Mobile USA deal, citing no objections to the deal. The FCC has yet to approve the deal.

Sprint Nextel, which already owns a 13.1% stake in Virgin Mobile USA, stands to gain some 5.2 million additional subscribers from the deal. Virgin Mobile’s strength in prepaid wireless service would give Sprint an upper hand in the growing no-contract market. Indeed, Sprint’s prepaid arm, Boost Mobile, has been doing well for itself since it launched its $50 unlimited calling plan. Adding Virgin Mobile into the mix would only make Sprint stronger in that segment.

Now that the FTC is on board, the next step is to clear the FCC’s review process. Which, according to analysts “will take some time.”

[AP via: MobileBurn]

There are some out there that might disagree with London’s push to clean up the seedier side of metropolitan life, but wireless carriers in the UK are apparently on board with new program to block phone numbers known to be tied to prostitution rings. The Times Online is reporting that the Metropolitan Police, the Crown Prosecution Service, British Telecom will meet with the CEOs of Vodafone (NYSE: VOD), Orange, O2 (NYSE: TEF), 3, Virgin and T-Mobile (NYSE: DT) this coming October. The topic of discussion: How to block prostitutes’ phone numbers before the 2012 Olympic Games in London.

At stake here is the welfare of women brought into the UK to work as prostitutes. With the 2012 Olympic Games coming to London, tourists will be flocking to the foggy city. Research from the 2004 Olympic Games showed that the number of women trafficked into Athens doubled prior to the 2004 Games. And, London wants to prevent a similar surge in sex trafficking.

London’s underbelly is home to criminal gangs (prostitution rings, really) that trick women into coming to the UK to work high-paying jobs, only to find that they’re now indebted to pay back travel and immigration costs by working as sex workers. The gangs set up phone numbers and distribute flyers to market their “business.” By blocking access to these prostitution rings, London hopes to fight the abuse of women by taking away a key part of pimps’ business model.

A noble effort indeed. The rest of the world would do well to follow London’s example.

[Via: T3]

I just posted about the ‘unlimited’ tariff deal with Tesco, so I thought it only fair to give Virgins deal a mention too!

Virgin Media have launched a £65/month (!) tariff that includes unlimited calls, text, and mobile internet usage. It’s an 18-month contract however, but it does include a Nokia (NYSE: NOK) N86, Samsung Jet, or some other appropriate devices also.

Now I don’t know about you, but this is a lot of cash – partly because they are bundling a handset, but partly I think also because they are punting unlimited data – which some people going for this offer would use heavily. However, I’m not sure at £65/month they are going to get a massive adoption rate, just because of that big monthly outlay. But I could be wrong

Of course, that’s not to say that Virgin has forgotten its Prepay offering, which is started off with – but the contract approach signifies a divergence strategy to capture the whole range of market segments in to their customer base.

[Via: Mobile News]

So much for the rumor of Bell launching the Samsung Link on the 30th all by their lonesome. Virgin Mobile Canada has jumped the gun and launched the Samsung Link in Grey. You can head over to Virgin Mobile Canada right now for full details or to pick one up for yourself. Pricing on the Samsung Link at Virgin goes like this:

• 3-year: $29.99
• 2-year: $49.99
• 1-year: $99.99
• No contract: $99.99

The Samsung Link packs a large QWERTY keyboard, 1.3MP camera, Bluetooth, speakerphone, memory expansion to 16GB, 3.5mm headset jack, mp3 player and 220×176 TFT display.

Full details at Virgin Mobile Canada.

[Via: MobileSyrup]