Virgin Media Eyes Complementary Mobile Broadband Market
According to the executives at Virgin Media the mobile broadband market has limited appeal to most customers and that they intend to change this by allowing the service to complements the existing range of services in their product bundles.
Virgin Media has strong roots in high-end broadband, television, and mobile communication bundles. Because of this they have firm belief that their incursion into the mobile broadband market will be highly successful.
The company, known for being the first quadruple play company in the United Kingdom, is listed in New York but operates only in the UK. During its entry into the mobile broadband market last month, they offered mobile broadband services at fifteen pounds per month. Virgin Media also plans to roll out their mobile broadband service in bundles similar to the Virgin Mobile bundles already available in the market today.
During the annual Morgan Stanley technology, media, and telecoms conference in Barcelona, Virgin Media chief executive Neil Berkett said that “Mobile broadband, in the short to medium future, will be a complementary product in the UK.” Furthermore he adds that “at the top end of products, a dongle (mobile broadband modem) will be very cheap indeed.” This reflects the company’s view on the mobile broadband market as an available resource that can be successfully tapped.
Current views from Ofcom, the media regulatory body, which states that BSkyB, a pay-TV company, should provide wholesale level access to premium, high-definition, and sports content, is fully supported by Berkett. He said “I have a high degree of confidence there will be a remedy in the marketplace, but not in the next quarter or so”. The current cost of premium content has prevented the increase in market share and has limited its spread to only about six million households.
