VIRGIN MOBILE CANADA IS WISHING FOR GOOD CHEER - HAPPY TEXTING TO ALL AND TO
ALL A GOOD YEAR!

Virgin Mobile Canada predicts more than 1.5 billion texts will be sent from Christmas to New Year's

TORONTO, Dec. 23 /CNW/ - 'Twas the week before Christmas and all across the land, every digit was stirring on each little hand. The holiday texts were flying with speed, full of wish lists and kiss lists and gifts just received. With texters awaiting whose phone would ping next, high above their heads flew more than one billion texts!

It doesn't take one of the Wise Men to figure out that Canadians love to text. And cold fingers don't seem to be slowing them down - this year Virgin Mobile Canada expects that more than 300 million texts will be sent on Christmas Day, and an even bigger peak happening at midnight on New Year's Eve with 350 million texts, adding up to over 1.5 billion texts in the days between December 25 and January 1.

"Holiday texting has reached huge proportions - and calling or sending a snail mail card is so 2008," said Nathan Rosenberg, Chief Marketing Officer, Virgin Mobile Canada. "With so many hot new phones, from the Samsung Galaxy's touchscreen to the BlackBerry Torch's QWERTY keyboard, it's incredibly easy to text. I actually texted my holiday wish list to Santa this year!"

In addition to more text-friendly phones, the availability of more unlimited texting plans, like Virgin Mobile's Talk & Text plan for $35 per month, are causing more people to turn to text messages to send out their holiday greetings instead of the traditional Christmas card.  The top three texts for Christmas are: "Cant w8 to unwrap u xoxo" "Ive been nice this yr - have u?" and "U + me + mistletoe?"  For New Year's Eve, topping the list of texts are: "Countin down 2 our xoxo" "Wanna pop my champagne cork?" and "2011 is the yr of the rabbit - wanna b my bunny?"

Let's Talk About Text, Baby

• More than 154 million texts are sent each day in Canada¹ - but Virgin Mobile expects that to double for the holidays!
  
  
• Canadians average more than 4.6 billion text messages sent each month!
  
  
• Virgin Mobile predicts that teen texters will replace last year's 18 to 30-year-old holiday textaholics, sending out nearly double the average number of text messages over the holidays.

About Virgin Mobile Canada

Virgin Mobile Canada is Canada's #1 mobile youth company delivering the hottest phones on the hottest HSPA+ network.  Virgin Mobile Members also get access to must-see events, global roaming and award-winning customer service. J.D. Power and Associates 2009 Canadian Wireless Customer Satisfaction Study has awarded Virgin Mobile "Highest in Customer Satisfaction with Prepaid Wireless Service, Five Years in a Row"² and it has ranked Virgin Mobile "Highest in Customer Satisfaction With Postpaid Wireless Service"³. 91% of customers would also recommend Virgin Mobile to a friend. 

The Virgin Mobile group of companies has attracted more than 15 million customers worldwide.  Virgin Mobile phones are available at more than 4,000 locations nationally including The Source, Virgin Mobile retail locations and additional retail partners including Best Buy, Future Shop, Wal-Mart, Visions, Telephone Booth and Wireless Wave. Virgin Mobile products can also be purchased online at www.virginmobile.ca or by calling 1-888-999-2321. Get personal with Virgin Mobile Canada on Facebook at facebook.com/virginmobilecan and Twitter at twitter.com/virginmobilecan.

¹ http://www.txt.ca/english/consumer/press.html

² J.D. Power and Associates 2005-2009 Canadian Wireless Customer Satisfaction Studies^SM. Study based on 15,207 total responses from consumers with prepaid wireless service, measuring 5 wireless service providers. Proprietary study results are based on experiences and perceptions of consumers surveyed in October 2009. www.jdpower.com

³ J.D. Power and Associates 2005-2009 Canadian Wireless Customer Satisfaction Studies^SM. Study based on 15,207 total responses from consumers with postpaid wireless service, measuring 9 wireless service providers. Proprietary study results are based on experiences and perceptions of consumers surveyed in October 2009. www.jdpower.com

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