Virgin Mobile launches 3G-based 'fixed line' broadband bundle

Stuart Corner
Tuesday, 24 July 2007 23:59

Your IT - Home IT

Virgin Mobile has launched a fixed line telephone service with broadband Internet access and including unlimited local and national long distance calls and 4GBs of download data for $60 month, with all traffic carried on parent Optus' 3G network.

The service, Virgin Broadband at Home, is one part of a new suite of services, Virgin Broadband, along with Virgin Mobile Broadband: a mobile offering of handset (the new Nokia 6120), $520 worth of calls and 1GB of HSDPA data for $80 per month. Unlimited calls to other Virgin Mobile numbers are also included and voicemail is free. Virgin Mobile CEO, Matt Davey, said charges for calls other than those included in the bundle were "comparable to those from other fixed line service providers."

"This is the first wireless triple play in Australia and the first for any Virgin mobile company in the world," said Davey. "It makes us now full blown telco."

To activate the Virgin Broadband at Home service, users simply power up the access device which contains a 3G cellphone, router and WiFi access point and plug in a standard analogue handset and connect their PC via either an ethernet port or WiFi. The service comes with PSTN telephone number and users can port across an existing PSTN number if they choose.

The data rate for the HSPA access is constrained to a maximum of 700kps and once the quota is exceeded is throttled back to 128kbps. However the modem in the access device is able to support HSDPA at up to 7.2Mbps. The service will be available from 1 August, initially from Virgin Mobile stores but later from a wider range of outlets. It is offered on a 30 day money back guarantee; there is always the possibility that the user could be in a 3G blackspot.

Davey said: "Initially we will be selling it through our own retail stores. We will also have an online campaign and direct sales through TV adverts. After about three or four weeks we will start to use our traditional channels to market."

Coming only days after Optus' launch of its $69 per month 'Fusion'  bundled product it represents another very radical shift in service options and, like the recent reduction in prices for mobile broadband announced by 3, is likely to hit Unwired particularly.

Like the Virgin Broadband at Home service Unwired appeals particularly to those in shared households, or not in fixed accommodation. But Unwired does not offer voice. At one time it did offer the Freshtel VoIP service as a joint promotion, but that has long since been discontinued.