Virgin Mobile Call Divert

Anyone know why virgin mobile don't have call divert available?

Thanks

On Thu, 05 Oct 2006 21:20:14 GMT, Mr Man wrote:

> Anyone know why virgin mobile don't have call divert available?

Because they don't want to bother i suppose. I rang them a few month ago to
ask them why setting up call divert on my mobile didn't work and they told
me that call divert didn't work. When i asked why, they answer that... call
divert didn't work. Yeah, right.

Mehdi wrote:
> On Thu, 05 Oct 2006 21:20:14 GMT, Mr Man wrote:
>
>> Anyone know why virgin mobile don't have call divert available?
>
> Because they don't want to bother i suppose. I rang them a few month
> ago to ask them why setting up call divert on my mobile didn't work
> and they told me that call divert didn't work. When i asked why, they
> answer that... call divert didn't work. Yeah, right.

It never has worked with Virgin Mobile. When Virgin Mobile first launched
the service - in terms of functionality - was (almost) identical to the
One2One/T-Mobile pre pay offering: "Mobile Email" worked with Virgin Mobile,
Virgin mobile SIMs were able to use the T-Mobile WAP geographical location
services and, like One2One, call diversion didn't work for pre pay users. I
suspected, when Virgin Mobile first launched, that they weren't able to
provide call diversion because One2One didn't support it for pre-pay
customers. [Digression: when easyMobile launched using the T-Mobile network
it was possible, during the first couple of weeks of the service, to connect
to T-Mobile CS by dialling 150 from the easyMobile phone.]

The Virgin mobile pay monthly direct debit option wasn't/isn't a contract
option and therefore has exactly the same features as the traditional top up
approach - including no call diversion. The service just hasn't developed
beyond the very limited initial parameters of the cheap and cheerful pre pay
service. One possible explanation for the lack of call diversion on the pay
monthly dd option is that Virgin don't trust customers to have the money in
their bank accounts to pay the bill. What other non technical explanation is
there? (I'm sure there is one somewhere).

The lack of call diversion was perhaps okay 4 or so years ago but Virgin
Mobile has now fallen so far behind in terms of feature set that it's a lame
duck in comparison to, say, easyMobile or even Tesco Mobile in terms of
features. The service just hasn't developed and in fact the service has lost
some of its former functionality - Mobile Email was removed about 5 years
ago and this was a genuinely useful service (still provided (but not
advertised) by T-Mobile for 10p per message).

The only uniquely good thing about Virgin Mobile seems to be the free voice
mail access (and relatively reasonable roaming charges). Virgin Mobile call
charges are now not that good (in comparison for example to Tesco which
allows you to elect preferential rate numbers). The GPRS charges are
expensive (although not as pricey as T-Mobile which does however, I'm told,
cap pre pay GPRS charges at £1 a day.)

Perhaps with the NTL merger/takeover the service will develop in terms of
maturity and functionality? Perhaps the prices will also rise?

Gareth.

On Fri, 6 Oct 2006 11:44:01 +0100, Gareth wrote:


> The only uniquely good thing about Virgin Mobile seems to be the free voice
> mail access (and relatively reasonable roaming charges). Virgin Mobile call
> charges are now not that good (in comparison for example to Tesco which
> allows you to elect preferential rate numbers). The GPRS charges are
> expensive (although not as pricey as T-Mobile which does however, I'm told,
> cap pre pay GPRS charges at £1 a day.)

Virgin is still the cheapest for GRPS rates when roaming (although at
£5/MB, it can't be really called "cheap").

Another nice thing with Virgin are the free delivery reports for SMS. As
far as I know, O2 doesn't even supports that (unless you manually add a
code at the begining of every SMS you send) and some other operators charge
them.

Granted though, Virgin Mobile isn't really competitive overall at the
moment but their £15/month tarif for 300 minutes and 300 texts + free 8Mb
broadband is pretty good though (and you're not tied with them).

Mehdi wrote:
> On Fri, 6 Oct 2006 11:44:01 +0100, Gareth wrote:
>
>
>> The only uniquely good thing about Virgin Mobile seems to be the
>> free voice mail access (and relatively reasonable roaming charges).
>> Virgin Mobile call charges are now not that good (in comparison for
>> example to Tesco which allows you to elect preferential rate
>> numbers). The GPRS charges are expensive (although not as pricey as
>> T-Mobile which does however, I'm told, cap pre pay GPRS charges at
>> £1 a day.)
>
> Virgin is still the cheapest for GRPS rates when roaming (although at
> £5/MB, it can't be really called "cheap").
>
> Another nice thing with Virgin are the free delivery reports for SMS.
> As far as I know, O2 doesn't even supports that (unless you manually
> add a code at the begining of every SMS you send) and some other
> operators charge them.
>
> Granted though, Virgin Mobile isn't really competitive overall at the
> moment but their £15/month tarif for 300 minutes and 300 texts + free
> 8Mb broadband is pretty good though (and you're not tied with them).

Yes, Orange is charging for delivery reports (afaik only on contract
though?) It really is disgraceful that companies can't be content with the
huge revenue earning force of sms without adding even more income generating
nonsense to the business.

The £15 a month Virgin tariff is okay but it really depends upon your
usage - if you call mostly landlines and other Virgin phones then the basic
pre-pay plan is probably better. The 8Mb broadband connection is the
clincher. The NTL/Virgin offer - 300 minutes and 300 texts - for £10 a month
is also very good value for money although you have to be a NTL customer
with television or telephone/broadband.

Virgin GPRS is too exepensive (roaming aside). I find Virgin to be good
value for money (I use a callthrough number for cross network calls) but
their data charges are a rip off. Orange is much more sensible in this
regard - on pre pay with Orange you can pay £4 for 4 meg of data transfer
and buy as many 4 meg bundles a month as you need. Very good value for money
in comparison to Virgin.

I'm in the process of porting my main number from Virgin because of the lack
of call diversion. It really is a nuisance.

Gareth.

Well they replied to my email. Firsly saying they dont support it
because they are a virtual operator using T-Mobile (we all know that
much!) So i replied saying easyMobile, Fresh and Mobile World use
T-Mobile and offer it. I then got this response:

We don't currently offer this on our network however, we're always
looking into ways to improve our services, so this may be something that
we introduce in the future. Keep your eyes on our website at
virginmobile.com for details.

The network '3' offer it to all customers, including pre pay! But they
do have the newest network around