Virgin Plus

Virgin Plus is a Canadian provider of postpaid wireless voice, text and data communications services throughout Canada. They also offer home Internet and TV services in select areas of Ontario and Quebec. Launched as Virgin Mobile Canada on March 1, 2005, as a joint venture between Virgin Group and BCE Inc., BCE took sole ownership on July 1, 2009, when it closed a deal to purchase the stake it did not already own. Virgin Plus calls its customers 'Members' and offers a Member Benefits program, which provides its customers with special offers, discounts, and VIP experiences.

]] Virgin Plus is a Canadian provider of postpaid wireless voice, text and data communications services throughout Canada. They also offer home Internet and TV services in select areas of Ontario and Quebec. Launched as Virgin Mobile Canada on March 1, 2005, as a joint venture between Virgin Group and BCE Inc., BCE took sole ownership on July 1, 2009, when it closed a deal to purchase the stake it did not already own. Virgin Plus calls its customers 'Members' and offers a Member Benefits program, which provides its customers with special offers, discounts, and VIP experiences.

History

Networks

Virgin Plus customers use Bell Mobility's LTE, HSPA+, and 5G networks.

Member benefits, events & sponsorship

Since 2010, Virgin Plus offers a "Member Benefits" loyalty program to Members. This allows Virgin Plus Members access exclusive contests, discounts, other one-of-a-kind opportunities. Categories originally included only four pillars: music, entertainment, fashion, travel. However, the program has evolved to include more partnerships that provide value for Members, but fall outside of these categories, such as food offers from Pizza Pizza, and New York Fries. On February 2, 2011, the brand announced a partnership with Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures. The following month, Virgin Mobile partnered with H&M. In June of that same year, Flight Centre began offering exclusive discounts to Virgin Mobile Members. Numerous other partners have been added over time, such as New York Fries, The Body Shop and Zipcar. Cineplex Entertainment, and Porter Airlines were added in May 2012, and while current Cineplex offers are only valid for new Cineplex Scene customers, the cinema chain announced future deals for existing customers as well. In 2013 & 2014, more new partners have come on board, including Banana Republic, Warner Bros. Entertainment, G Adventures, and Dynamite. Virgin Plus also sponsors several nationally recognized events & creates unique experiences and opportunities for Members. For example, Virgin Plus sponsors the Virgin Mobile presents Osheaga Musique Festival et Arts in Montreal, QC, Virgin Mobile Stampede Concert Series at the Calgary Stampede in Calgary, AB, and Virgin Mobile presents Squamish Valley Music Festival in Squamish Valley, BC. Virgin Plus offers Members the opportunity to enter contests on the Member Benefits webpage to win VIP experiences at these events. Virgin Plus sponsors the music venue Virgin Mobile Corona Theatre in Montreal, and formerly sponsored Virgin Mobile Mod Club in Toronto.

Discontinued services

Virgin Plus prepaid services were discontinued for new customers on September 30, 2024, though existing customers can continue using their prepaid service until January 15, 2027. Bell Mobility, which operates Virgin Plus, recommends its Lucky Mobile brand for new prepaid activations. Prepaid service at Virgin Plus was the only type of service available upon the company's launch on March 1, 2005, when it was known as Virgin Mobile Canada. This service used the CDMA network and included a par-per-use plan, which charged per-minute billing for local calling or per-message fee for each SMS sent, and monthly plans, with features such as local calling minutes or unlimited messaging. All plans included unlimited received SMS, caller ID, voicemail, call waiting, call forwarding and conference calling, although regular airtime charges may apply. Add-ons could be purchased for additional features. In 2011, Virgin launched prepaid service for its HSPA+ network. The service was later expanded to its LTE network.

Retail presence

Since its inception, Virgin Plus has its own dedicated retail kiosks. Such booths are usually located in the middle of a mall hall, but can sometimes be found in its own corner or built as a mini-store. On June 10, 2011, Virgin Group chairman Richard Branson and Glee star Cory Monteith celebrated the opening of Virgin Mobile Canada's first street-front store, located in Montreal, Quebec. A few days later, on June 17, a second Virgin store was built inside the MuchMusic headquarters in Toronto, Ontario. This store is called "Virgin Mobile at Much". The third retail store was opened in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Starting Q3 2012, select Virgin Mobile Canada retail locations became what are known as 'Service Lounges', A Service Lounge offers live, in person Warranty Support and can accept broken devices eligible for repair under the Virgin Mobile Standard Warranty Program in addition to issuing 'Loaner Devices'. In Q4 2012, Virgin Mobile Canada also started offering an extended warranty program called Virgin Smart Care ' (VSC). As of October 2018, there are three tiers of VSC: Plus $6/month (mobile phones & select smartphones), Premium $9/month (mobile phones, select smartphones & tablets), Premium $12/month (premium select smartphones & tablets).

References

External links

Text derived from https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=1369408027 under CC BY-SA 4.0; modifications have been made.

Names in other languages