Virgin Mobile is a brand used by several mobile phone service providers operating in the United Kingdom, India, Australia, Canada, South Africa, the United States and France; the brand survived only briefly in Singapore. The international Virgin Mobile businesses each act as independent entities, usually in a partnership between Sir Richard Branson's Virgin Group and an existing phone company. Virgin Group provides the brand, and the phone company operates the network infrastructure.
Virgin Mobile was the world's first Mobile Virtual Network Operator when it launched in the United Kingdom in 1999. It does not maintain its own network but instead contracts to use the existing network(s) of other providers.
