Virgin Mobile launched its service in Canada earlier this week, in a truly grandiose style: Sir Richard Branson (photo), the company founder, jumped from an office building and performed a few other stunts.

Obviously, the company will go after the casual users that do not want to be bound by long-term contracts, as well as the youth segment, which is typically more cost conscious (the very same segment to which Fido used to cater to).  Of course, now that City Fido is gone, many look to Virgin as being the true disruptor in the Canadian wireless service landscape.  The truth is that not too many of the City Fido users per se will be jumping ship to Virgin (after all, these are "all you can eat" type of consumers that are seeking a cheap large volume deal, and to them, the 10-25 cent a minute pre-paid deal might prove to be a bit steep), but the casual Fido users definitely will consider flocking over to the Virgin camp.  The same holds true for Telus and Bell Mobility casual users. 

I suspect that Virgin will cause some disruption, and I welcome that.  For one thing, by charging a per-minute fee of 10 to 25 cents, Virgin can offer free features such as voice mail, call waiting, call forwarding and three-way calling.  Also, Virgin will push for wireless number portability (the CRTC has been so morose in pushing for that initiative that the Canadian Government has requested the CRTC to expedite the issue in this year's budget, but Virgin will be lobbying alongside).  Another issue that Virgin will challenge is the controversial $7 system access fee, which does not exist anywhere else in the world.

The Virgin model is about to be proven in Canada, which should prove to be a fertile ground for MVNOs, due to the oligopolistic nature of its mobile communications market.  Hopefully, consumers will win as competition returns.  For more info about Virgin and its charismatic founder (Sir Richard Branson), here is a great interview conducted by Mark Evans, the senior telecom reporter for the National Post.  Definitely, a very enjoyable read.