As expected, Richard Branson made a splash today with the launch of Virgin Mobile Canada. It was exactly what you'd expect from the billionaire entrepreneur as he rappeled from the top of a building to the ground where three scantily clad "nurses" were waiting for him. After an "impromptu" snowball fight with the nurses and the obligatory camera opps, the media circus moved inside for a Q&A where there were reporters from publications I never knew existed.
Now, the nuts of bolts of the offer. It's a simple pre-paid service with the first five minutes priced at 25 cents a minute and then 15 cents a minute for the rest of the day. The other compelling feature is the purchased minutes can be used over 120 days - good news for people who want a wireless phone but use it infrequently. Branson said Virgin Canada should have two million customers in a "handful" of years. You can expect Bell, Rogers and Telus to move quickly to deal with Virgin's different new offers, which will force a new battle for the pre-paid customer into a marketing war.