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Virgin Mobile UK is a mobile phone service provider operating in the United Kingdom, and a subsidiary of Virgin Media. The company was launched by Virgin Group in 1999 as the world's first Mobile Virtual Network Operator (MVNO). As a virtual network operator, Virgin Mobile does not maintain its own network, but instead has contracts to use the existing network of EE (originally One2One at the time Virgin launched). NTL:Telewest bought Virgin Mobile on 4 April 2006 and rebranded itself as Virgin Media on 9 February 2007. Virgin Mobile became part of the quadplay of Virgin Media services and received a new logo in-line with its parent. Virgin Media was subsequently purchased by Liberty Global in 2013. Virgin provide pay as you go and contract mobile packages, as well as mobile broadband services. It sells its services directly, as well as through Virgin Media's retail stores. ==History== Virgin Mobile was launched in November 1999 as a private joint venture between One2One (later T-Mobile) and the Virgin Group.〔 〕 The joint venture involved leasing network bandwidth from One2One and re-selling it under the Virgin Mobile brand, making it significantly cheaper to run than if Virgin operated its own network infrastructure.〔 〕 The company reported its first annual profit in 2003, following successful Christmas sales.〔 〕 In 2004 Deutsche Telekom sold their 50% holding in Virgin Mobile to the Virgin Group, with the agreement that if the company were to become public in the following two and a half years they would receive 25% of the proceeds.〔 〕 The two companies had previously argued over the terms of the agreement made in 1999 and Richard Branson had filed a High Court action against T-Mobile. Richard Branson had considered making Virgin Mobile public in 2002. Eventually dealing in shares of Virgin Mobile began on 21 July 2004, with 37% of the companies made available for sale as an initial public offering. The remaining shares were held by the Virgin Group. At the time the company had 4.1 million customers, employed 1,400 staff in the UK and the listing valued the company at £500m. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Virgin Mobile UK」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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