High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! Virgin Mobile is a brand used by many mobile phone service providers based in the United Kingdom and operating in 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 1998.It does not maintain its own network but instead contracts to use the existing network of other providers.