Virgin mobile planning to enter Indian Telecom Market

Virgin Mobile is reported to be planning a joint venture with India's second largest CDMA network operator, Tata Teleservices. The report in the local Economic Times newspaper said that Virgin will exclusively license the Virgin Mobile brand and technology expertise in the area of value-added services (VAS) and handsets to Tata.

The two parties are understood to have started recruitment for the joint venture, expected to be functional this quarter. The UK-based global executive search firm CHR Global is recruiting staff for the new entity, sources told the ET newspaper. The search for a CEO for the joint venture is on.
While Virgin typically operates as an MVNO, these are not currently permitted in India. It is thought that the joint venture will operate on the Tata network as a branding alliance.
Spokepersons from both company declined to comment, the paper said.
Tata Teleservices ended the first quarter of this year with a little under 11.5 million subscribers . The company market share in the Indian market is around 7.24%.