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Virgin Mobile USA and Nokia team up 11/20/2004 2:37:43 PM IST

http://www.indiainfoline.com/news/news.asp?dat=49598

Nokia and Virgin Mobile USA, LLC announced that the two companies intend to work together to introduce a Nokia CDMA handset through Virgin Mobile's retail channels in early 2005. This collaboration marks the first time these two industry-leading brands have come together in the United States market.

"By putting the Nokia and Virgin Mobile names together, we will leverage the strength of two of the world's best known and most recognized brands," said Tim Eckersley, senior vice president for Nokia. "We think that the addition of Nokia's award-winning design and user-friendly operation to Virgin Mobile's strong retail marketing and 'Pay As You Go' value proposition will result in a truly compelling offering."

Nokia first entered the CDMA handset market in 1992, and today many of the largest CDMA carriers in the world, including the two largest CDMA operators in the US, offer Nokia's CDMA handsets. After previous launches in the United Kingdom and Australia, Virgin Mobile entered the US market in 2002, and today its products are available at more than 20,000 locations including Best Buy, Target, Wal*Mart and, of course, Virgin Megastores. Virgin Mobile focuses exclusively on the youth market and offers all of its customers access to VirginXtras - a suite of fun-filled applications, which includes exclusive content from *MTV, Comedy Central content, Superphonic (a.k.a real-music) ringtones and more. Its 3G customers also have access to VirginXL, the high octane version of VirginXtras, with picture messaging and downloadable games.

"Virgin Mobile and Nokia are both world-class brands," said Dan Schulman, CEO of Virgin Mobile USA. "By combining the marketing strength of our respective teams, we are confident that we will deliver a product that will truly resonate with and engage young wireless users."