Free Mobile Phone Calls from Virgin

[Triumph]

Who would have thunk it? Free phone calls for watching advertisments and responding. Up to 75 minutes a month.

THE US ARM of Virgin Mobile is going to allow its punters to have free calls if they agree to watch advertisements and respond to them.

Under the offer, customers of Virgin users can get up to 75 minutes of free calls per month if they spend an equal amount of time looking at ads and replying to these ads via text messages.

Branson's idea is that the service will appeal to those cash-strapped teens who can't afford to spend too much on calls.

So far the outfit has signed deals with Pepsi , Microsoft's Xbox game console and a yoof smoking prevention campaign to provide advertisments.

Of course, being a Branson scheme it will be irritating and depend on a lot of self-publicity, we don't know about the ads on mobiles idea.

http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=32043

[ninikins]

ok...so how would it work? you watch and text? and you pay to send a msg? I'm not totally following this.

[Jason425]

They spam and you say "yes, I see the spam" or something... i'm guessing replies to spam are free.

[Triumph]

Originally Posted by Jason425

They spam and you say "yes, I see the spam" or something... i'm guessing replies to spam are free.

LOL.

I *THINK* you would have videos and commercials that would play from time-to-time when you try to make calls, and the viewing of those commercials and responding would get you credits towards your account.

They key is responding though, you can't just have the ad running in your pocket, I am pretty sure you have to respond in some manner to get credit, be on the phone web, or however.

[Jason425]

the respond bit makes them able to charge MUCH more for the advertising.

[Slashmire]

Well it *could* work...but one would probably get annoyed very fast out of that.

And as this news been verified; I mean, the Enquirer isn't the most reliable news source there is .

[harleysneak]

I wonder if any other companies would be up for trying this. It might be rather interesting and any time you can save money is great.

[ninikins]

has anyone tried this kind of thing yet or is it not in use yet?

[Triumph]

Apparently it is a bit different than I thought. The service is going to launch this Wednesday and is called "SugarMamma". You watch ads on their website and then answer questions. For each answer you get right you get a free minute of airtime.

Seems like a lot of work for free airtime, but maybe for a struggling student it would be worthwhile.

"Hold on becky let me call you back after I watch some more commercials."

http://www.sptimes.com/2006/06/12/Te...The_Buzz.shtml

[Slashmire]

Well it could work, and I guess we won't know until the system launches... As for the name, "SugarMamma", well that's a little weird.