Virgin Mobile breaks into mobile broadband

In its latest set of quarterly results, Virgin Mobile has revealed it will be unveiling its own mobile broadband offering in the fourth quarter of this year.

The move comes about due to a recent renegotiation of the virtual mobile operator's agreement with its network supplier, T-Mobile, for the cost of voice and data services. As a result, the operator says it now "will also be able to price more competitively in the growing mobile data usage market".

A spokesperson for the quad-play company declined to provide any details on how the service is likely to be priced, whether it will be available on a pre- or post-pay basis and available speeds until the service is launched.

However, should Virgin's mobile broadband product echo T-Mobile's own offering, customers can expect a theoretical maximum of 7.2Mbps - translating to a real-world maximum of 4.5Mbps - within the M25 area. T-Mobile also launched its HSUPA network in July, promising effective upload speeds of 1.4Mbps.

Virgin becomes the last major operator to launch a mobile broadband service, following rival O2 which made a 3G data product available to existing customers in April this year.

Virgin Media also used its second-quarter results to reiterate its plans for a 50Mbps fixed broadband service, now expected to go live in the second half of this year.

Original article: Virgin Mobile promises wireless broadband from ZDNet UK