OXFORD, United Kingdom-Carrefour, the giant French hypermarket firm, has appointed KPMG to advise it on plans to become a mobile virtual network operator. The company is reported to have approached the three mobile operators in France and was said to have conducted in-depth discussions involving General Packet Radio Service use with Bouygues.
However, Carrefour, which has operated a mobile services marketing firm since 1993, is said now to be more interested in launching its MVNO service based on third-generation technology rather than 2.5-generation.
SFR and France Telecom’s Orange are said to be in talks with several potential MVNOs, although they were not prepared to provide details.
Separately, Virgin Mobile announced it had signed up its millionth customer in the United Kingdom, making it the fastest growing start-up telecom firm in the market.
The company, whose U.K. operation is a 50-50 joint venture between Richard Branson’s Virgin Group and Deutsche Telekom One 2 One, said it had increased its share of connections at an average rate of 33 percent per quarter since it launched 19 months ago.
Branson said he planned to make Virgin Mobile the world’s first global network and is said to be in discussions with U.S.-based Sprint for a similar venture in the United States. “We aim to have businesses in 10 countries and across five continents within the next year,” he said in a statement.
Virgin Mobile’s Asia operation is a joint venture between Virgin Group and Singapore Telecommunications.
