Richard Branson has confirmed that he and his company are looking to open Virgin Mobile in Russia. As it’s usually the case with Virgin Mobile, they don’t want to build the network from the ground-up — rather, their plan is to rely on existing carriers and do the marketing as best as they can.
Sir Branson put it this way: “We use their networks, and they use our brand. It has worked really well in other countries and we think it will work well in Russia.”
However, he failed to mention how the carrier talks are going and when can we expect to see Virgin’s local MVNO launching.
The company already has a presence in Russia as an ISP, Virgin Connect, which offers a fixed WiMAX service in 20 cities across the country. But that’s like a start as the Virgin Group seeks to invest up to $1 billion in Russia-focused businesses, presuming the telecoms venture and plans for airline services go ahead…
[Via: Reuters]