Sprint (NYSE: S) Nextel has closed the $483 million acquisition of Virgin Mobile USA (NYSE: VM), after shareholders voted in favor of the deal today. But now comes the hard part. Analysts see the company’s struggling with two challenges: competing with the other low-end service providers that have continually dropped…

Carphone Warehouse-controlled Virgin Mobile (NYSE: VM) France announced on Friday it had entered an agreement to buy Tele2 Mobile France from Swedish telco Tele2 for €56 million ($83.6 million; £51.4 million), giving it 385,000 extra customers. VMF, a JV which is 48.5 percent owned by Carphone and operated by Omer…

After reports surfaced this weekend that Deutsche Telekom (NYSE: DT) might be interested in merging its struggling U.S. wireless unit with Sprint (NYSE: S), more details are emerging that puts into question when such a deal might take place, or whether Sprint is really the best candidate. The Financial Times…

A document filed with the SEC provides explicit details of the eight-month long sale of Virgin Mobile USA (NYSE: VM) to Sprint (NYSE: S) Nextel. The day-to-day account reveals that Virgin Mobile was able to increase the sale price through negotiations with more than one bidder, however, it failed to…

Virgin Mobile USA (NYSE: VM) has sued Ultramercial over its Sugar Mama service, which allowed users to earn free voice minutes by watching commercials. Two weeks ago, we reported that a lawsuit was likely, but further details were unavailable at the time. The next day, Sprint announced it would buy…

Virgin Mobile USA (NYSE: VM) Q2 profit jumped 296 percent from last year to $21.8 million, as premium handset sales grew strongly. Sales of phones priced over $50 jumped to 25 percent of sales from 15 percent in the previous quarter. Virgin Mobile says they come with “higher data usage,…

As the price of prepaid continues to come down, operators are starting to feel the burden, but not consumers who appear to be jumping from one provider to the next to get some of the cheapest wireless deals in history. Overall, the discount operators are struggling, mostly because they are…

SK Telecom (NYSE: SKM) had such big aspirations for the U.S., and now it looks like all its efforts are for nothing. SK Telecom’s entrance into the U.S. kicked off with a bang a few years back with Helio, a joint venture with Earthlink (NSDQ: ELNK). The South Korean telecom…

Sprint (NYSE: S) Nextel did not say how well the Palm (NSDQ: PALM) Pre sold during the second quarter, however, it sure didn’t help stem the losses. Sprint Nextel said today it lost a total of 991,000 post-paid customers, which was offset by a gain of 938,000 pre-paid iDen (most…

Sprint (NYSE: S) Nextel has agreed to buy Virgin Mobile USA (NYSE: VM) for $5.50 per share or $483 million, combining it with its own Boost Mobile to strengthen its prepaid mobile play. The two brands would continue to function separately, aiming prepaid services at “different customer demographics”, but would…

Virgin Mobile USA (NYSE: VM), which recently closed down its Sugar Mama program that subsidized minutes for users if they watched some ads on its website, is going to file a lawsuit against the operator of that program later this morning, sources have confirmed to us. The company, online ad…

The recent introduction of a $45 unlimited calling and texting plan by Tracfone Wireless has kicked off another round of price wars in the wireless industry, which may lead to consolidation in the pre-paid market, Dow Jones Newswires reports. In recent months, pre-paid offerings have gotten more popular as they…

GetJar, the independent mobile app store, has struck a deal with *Virgin Mobile* France, to provide the French carrier’s new mobile app store to launch on Wednesday with its entire selection of free applications, some 45,000 in total. The deal is the second for Getjar this month. Earlier in June,…

U.S. lawmakers are considering passing legislation that would impose a five-year moratorium on new state and local taxes for cell phones, just in time to prohibit governments from leveraging increasingly popular wireless services—like data and internet—to be a potential revenue source in this economic downturn. Dow Jones reports that taxes…

Virgin Mobile USA (NYSE: VM) is rolling out a pre-paid offering for the broadband data market, turning the conventional practice of signing up for a two-year broadband data contract on its head. Virgin said the service, called Broadband2Go, won’t require an annual contract, a monthly subscription or an activation fee.…

Verizon Communications (NYSE: VZ) provided a very bullish outlook on the company’s financial position of its wireless unit today, by saying that it will likely beat its own estimates of achieving 43 percent to 45 percent profit margins, Reuters reports. The company’s CFO John Killian said today that unless there…

Virgin Mobile (NYSE: VM) USA’s CEO Dan Schulman (pictured, right) has a front row seat to the latest trend in the wireless industry—a move by the mass market to adopt aggressively priced prepaid unlimited offers.  Schulman said prepaid interest has heightened recently as prices have fallen and perceptions have changed…

Bell Canada has acquired Virgin Mobile (NYSE: VM) Canada in the hopes of driving wireless-customer growth and competing more effectively with other discount providers. Bell Canada, which already owned half of Virgin Mobile Canada, paid $142 million for the remaining stake, reports the Financial Post. In a conference call discussing…

*Virgin Media*, Britain’s second largest pay-television company, and owners of *Virgin Mobile UK*, its MVNO service, reported first quarter earnings today. Mobile revenue in the quarter fell 3 percent to £135.3 million ($205 million) from £139.5 million ($211 million) a year ago, as low value prepay subscribers left the company,…