Virgin Mobile now has a winning card in their hands: introducing Virgin Mobile's Wild Card by Kyocera. It's a mobile phone than can stream music through its Headliners streaming audio application. How's that for getting your music on the go?

Kyocera's Wild Card is looking nifty, with its flip open QWERTY keyboard, color LCD screen, and a 1.3 megapixel camera that will become handy should you wish to save some memories you have with your friends.

The going rate isn't bad either. The audio streaming service through Virgin Wireless is only US$ 2.50 per month, and songs on demand are available for a very affordable 25 cent rate. Reports have mentioned that the song-on-demand fee will permit unlimited listening to the song, but Virgin did not clarify exactly how.

It looks like Virgin is definitely on the roll with their audio streaming services, including Virgin Radio for the Wii and PS3, and we're definitely not complaining.

Many phones with access to email are now available in the market, and there is no need to spend big bucks to afford a phone with such feature. Given that more people are demanding email on the go, research firm Gartner believes that SMS would soon be a goner.

According to the firm, one of five people will be using mobile email by 2010. 20 million wireless email users today will grow to a whopping 350 million on the same year, said firm's research vice president Monica Blasso. She noticed that the availability of low-cost phones with mobile email functions is driving consumer adaptation.

"Once email becomes available more or less free of charge by default on your mobile handset, people will gravitate to that rather than just continuing to use SMS," added Robin Simpson, mobile and wireless research director at Gartner Australasia. This is due to mobile email access being offered free as part of mobile phone contracts in Australia, he said.

According to Simpson, low mobile email uptake in Australia can be credited to high costs, but competition between carriers like Hutchison 3 and Virgin Mobile will drop prices rapidly. "The interesting thing is that SMS, if you look at it in terms of actual cost for the data, is really expensive, and where we're heading is you'll get a free email package when you sign up to your monthly plan," he continued.

Starting October 1, 2006, Virgin Mobile will begin streaming jolly-old English (the British, not the language) programmes onto cellular phones across Her Majesty's Britannic Isles with its new Virgin Mobile TV service, becoming the first European cellular provider to do so. Virgin will begin selling the Mobile Lobster 700 Mobile TV Phone (which has been quaintly dubbed with affectionate British humour as the "Telly-Phone") that will receive the service through two payment plans:

• For free with a subscription contract of £25 or more; and
• For £199 on a prepaid plan with the first three months of service free and £5 per month thereafter.

The Telly-Phone will be featured in a multi-million pound ad campaign featuring Baywatch babe Pam Anderson Lee (we wonder if "Baywatch" or Pam also comes with the service. Hmm...). The programmes will be broadcast over the DAB digital frequency spectrum, which currently services more than 85% of the British population, and the device will also receive DAB digital radio frequencies. The Telly-Phone will also be Virgin Mobile's first Windows-based smartphone.

On the offer from Virgin Mobile TV are:

• BBC One (trial basis for 12 months and for free),
• ITV1,
• Channel 4 ("Channel 4 Short Cuts," its made-for-mobile program), and
• E4

Popular survey company J.D Power and associates have completed a customer satisfaction study regarding this sector of the wireless industry. Although J.D Power conduct this inquiry into wireless customer satisfaction every year, this is the first year that they have included the field of customer care for pre-paid users. The survey included more than 4,000 customers, including both teens and adults.

Virgin mobile came out top of this pre-pay survey, knocking long-runner T-Mobile, who have been at number one for the last 3 years off the top spot. We guess customer care really does make a difference, and when it comes  to customer care it appears that bigger isn't always better. Maybe some of the other big companies should learn from Virgin mobile. Customer care is important and with coverage like this, Virgin Mobile are likely to get alot more customers.

ActiveMedia Technology, a UK-registered company, has launched a new mobile ticketing software by the use of "unique, patent pending, bar code ticket delivery, management and redemption platform delivers secure barcoded tickets to mobile phones which can be read by off-the-shelf, hand held web cam, rather than traditional costly bespoke terminals".

How does it work? The barcode is scanned by a handheld device and the information is passed from the web cam to a PC, handheld device or retail Epos system where it is authenticated by ActiveMedia’s RAPOS (redemption at point of sale) software.

Ariya Priyasantha, Managing Director of ActiveMedia Technology, said that in comparison to paper tickets, the mobile delivery and redemption of tickets are less expensive and can actually reduce the cost of ticketing by as much as 80%. The customers will have high advantage as Priyasantha points out that "there are obvious fraud reduction benefits too as there is no middle man to interfere with the delivery process ".

Virgin Mobile will have the honor of putting this unique mobile barcode to test during the V-festival. By using ActiveMedia's RAPOS platform, music fans that attend Virgin Mobile sponsored 'Road to V' gigs at select Carling Academy venues will be encouraged to text the word 'Backstage' to 26666 to gain VIP access to backstage areas. This and other customer loyalty promotions and the offering of VIP tickets at the V-festival will prove just how reliable this mobile ticketing will be. V-festivals in both Essex and Staffordshire will also get to try this mobile ticketing as the first 250 Virgin Mobile customers at each festival to redeem their VIP mobile ticket will be allowed entry into the Virgin sponsored VIP lounge!

Other brands that have deployed ActiveMedia’s RAPOS technology include British Airways, Telef?a, Blockbuster, Vue, UGC, Odeon ad UCI. No more excuse for lost tickets!

Microsoft's Xbox 360, Pepsi-Cola, and truth (the American Legacy Foundation's national youth smoking prevention campaign) - What do they all have in common? Nothing...until now. All of these brands have teamed up with Virgin Mobile USA to form a new service dubbed 'SugarMama' for prepay call plan users to turn advertisements into call time minutes.

All you have to do is view the online or SMS-based ads and provide feedback to the advertiser. Initially, only Xbox, Pepsi-Cola and truth are part of the SugaMama scheme, but if all goes well, we could see more brands signing up too. Director of Xbox Marketing Chris Di Cesare said:

"We're always seeking opportunities to learn from our customers how we can deliver the best gaming experiences possible on Xbox 360. Virgin Mobile's SugarMama program provides us with a new way to drive consumer awareness yet gain valuable insight from our customers that helps us continually deliver new breakthroughs in gaming entertainment.""

Virgin Mobile USA currently charges 25 cents per minute under its Minute2Minute plan, so for a customer who watches the maximum number of ads per month (which is initially planned for 75), he/she could earn $18.75 in airtime minutes. If you like viewing adverts, this sounds like a bargain!