UK mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) Virgin Mobile today announced that a number of its top brass, including founder and chief Tom Alexander, will stand down following the completion of the company’s acquisition by NTL in July.

Alexander, who has been at the helm of Virgin Mobile since its launch in 1999, has decided to leave the company of his own accord on July 4. He will be retained in an advisory role as a consultant to Virgin Mobile for the rest of 2006.

Charles Gurassa, non-executive chairman of Virgin Mobile, and the board’s other non-executive directors Gordon McCallum, Caroline Marland, Rupert Gavin, David Maloney and Richard Huntingford will also stand down on the successful completion of the merger.

Alan Gow, currently chief financial officer, will become managing director of Virgin Mobile and fellow executive director and co-founder Joe Steel, the company’s commercial director, will also continue with his position and deputy managing director.

NTL agreed to buy Virgin Mobile in April in a deal worth up to ВЈ985m. The merger will create the UK’s first quadruple play operator, delivering mobile, fixed line, broadband and TV services under the Virgin brand.

Virgin Mobile Bites unveils its new enhanced suite of value added services, which includes new 3G-enabled services, and unique mobile video content to offer a first class experience to its customers. Building on its success to date, Virgin Mobile Bites has been enhanced and extended to offer 3G services and more unique music, editorial and video content.

Virgin Mobile Bites offers fun, cheeky and irreverent “Bite-sized boredom busters” to its customers, and acts like a cross between a celebrity gossip magazine and a personal entertainment system on your mobile. Virgin Mobile customers can now banish boredom by downloading full-length digital music tracks and videos straight to their phone. Through a deal with Musiwave customers can choose over 400,000 music tracks and videos from all the top artists such as Robbie Williams, Coldplay and Beyonce.

Virgin Mobile’s unique content is key to the Bites video channel, and its fun and entertaining content remains true to its brand approach. There are exclusive celebrity and music interviews, the latest film reviews, and some exciting new comedy services such as Dancing Dads and Bites Boy. Dancing Dads features content sent in by Virgin Mobile customers, and viewers then may vote for the grooviest �dad’ dancer. Bites Boy is a character that will do anything asked of him by Virgin Mobile customers, no matter how wild or outrageous, which is then filmed by hidden cameras and the results broadcast over Bites.

Virgin Mobile Bites is available for Virgin Mobile customers to experience for 30p a day, around the cost of a daily newspaper. The service is complemented by a monthly Virgin Mobile Bites entertainment magazine, sent to customers for free. Customers who haven’t been regular users of Bites can benefit from a great value `try-before-you-buy’ offer – giving 30 days of access for free.

With Bites new enhanced 3G services, voice calls are also taken to the next level – Virgin Mobile customers with 3G video calling phones can now make and receive video calls to any UK mobile network. 3G services are available on Virgin Mobile’s Nokia N70, which has the video calling functionality along with other great features, including a 2 megapixel camera.

Nick White, head of value added services and product marketing at Virgin Mobile, said: “3G is all about evolution rather than revolution but we’re trying to make it fun and different. Our customers care about the video content they can see and the music they can buy rather then the name of the technology that delivers it. However, the launch of 3G is a significant step forward in providing a competitive customer experience, underpinning Virgin Mobile’s ability to continue to attract higher spending customers. We will progressively introduce phones with 3G capability throughout 2006.”

Virgin Mobile Bites is highly interactive, with quizzes, polls, opinions and reviews. It offers the chance for customers to publish their own material by text, picture messaging and video. It rewards participation with prizes, and creates a tribal feeling through the sharing of this content.

Bites has been created exclusively for Virgin Mobile with Que Pasa, which specialises in planning, creating and delivering multi-platform content in the youth market.

British entrepreneur Richard Branson evaded questions this morning about the possible takeover of Virgin Mobile by NTL and instead used the press’ attention to launch an attack on French operators, who he accused of “ripping off” French consumers.

As the Virgin Group launched mobile phone services in France, Branson told reporters that Virgin had examined the French market and found “the bulk of people in France have been ripped off big-time.”

Virgin’s boss has teamed up with Europe’s largest mobile retailer Carphone Warehouse to provide French consumers with free text messages by piggy-backing on the network of dominant mobile phone operator Orange.

The new service will, according to Branson, appeal to those who are unable to benefit from preferable pricing schemes he argues are only available for wealthy mobile users. “The poor, the students and the middle-classes have been paying for subsidising the rich, who can get bundles that are not bad,” Branson said. He added: “Eighty-five percent of the market is paying 50 per cent more than the average consumer in the rest of the world.”

France has been viewed as one of Europe’s least competitive mobile markets for some time. Last year, two of the country’s leading operators were fined for collusion.

Branson explained that after years of fruitless debate, pressure from regulators had finally given Virgin an opportunity to crack the French market with an MVNO operation. The Virgin boss is aiming at luring a million users within three years.

It offers pre-paid services at Eur0.42 a minute compared with Eur0.48-0.55 offered by the competition.