Richard Branson's 'FRiENDi' mobile brand makes debut in Sabah

Kota Kinabalu - Virgin Mobile Middle East & Africa made its debut in Malaysia via Sabah and Sarawak, Thursday, in a bid to further expand its presence in the South East Asia region, by luring customers especially from the low-caller spender group via its "FRiENDi" prepaid brand.

Virgin Mobile Middle East and Africa is an associate company of the UK-Based Virgin Group, which merged with the Dubai-based FRiENDi, led by global entrepreneur Richard Branson.

Its local partner is the Kumpulan Perangsang Selangor Bhd, the Selangor State Investment Arm.

FRiENDi mobile Malaysia Chief Executive Officer, Jonathan Marchbank, said the decision to pick East Malaysia as its launchpad was that huge focus had already been given by "big carriers" in the peninsula market, leaving the market potentials of the Borneo parts still untapped.

He said he sees more than 50 per cent of FRiENDi's volume will come from East Malaysia, noting that had already conducted an 18-month study before launching.

"So we're trying to do it in reverse. I think big carriers do not service this market very well, although we are also thinking of launching the brand in states like Johor, Penang as well as the Klang Valley area," he said during FRiENDi's launching, here.

The launching is also held in Sarawak simultaneously.

With more than 20 million users worldwide, its entry into the country merely as a Mobile Virtual Network Provider (MNVO) and that FRiENDi doesn't have towers nor can it be called a mobile network.

Instead, FRiENDi depends on the network of local major telcos, renting and buying from U-mobile and Maxis' capacity and space, before re-selling it, without undercutting the prices main providers charged to its customers.

However, Marchbank said FRiENDi offers value for money, by offering per second charge rate, cutting prepaid's airtime in the calls per second without rounding up the figure closest to its existing calling rates.

FRiENDi also provides discounts between 20 per cent and 40 per cent for calls made over a minute, which also apply to inter-networks and international calls that is charged with varying fixed rates.

It offers minimum rates to 15 countries like Indonesia, Philippines, Vietnam, Pakistan, China, Arab Saudi, USA and Hong Kong and charges a flat 15 sen SMS ate to all of these countries.

Furthermore, Marchbank said users can retain the validity of their prepaid by just making at least one call a month, adding that data packages are also available from as low as RM1 a day for 25MB.

"We don't intend to become big carriers. We start the market without any customers. So we want to offer you value and fair," said Marchbank, adding that FRiENDi aims to target customers, spending an average of RM20 to RM50 a month for calls.

FRiENDi mobile Malaysia has the support from a wide distribution network with 1,500 dealers across the peninsula and East Malaysia, with top services using the e-pay facilities and dealers.

FRiENDi currently is headquartered in Sandakan and Kuala Lumpur, with offices in Tawau, Kota Kinabalu and Kuching.

dailyexpress.com.my