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Virgin Mobile USA, a 50/50 joint venture between Virgin Group and Sprint mobile has filed to raise US$100M on the New York Stock Exchange. Virgin Mobile operates as a Mobile Virtual Network Operator (MVNO) concentrating on sales and marketing rather than owning and operating a physical network. The IPO funds will be directed at increasing market share in pay-as-you-go mobile plans with consumers 14-34 of age.

In general mobile operators with network infrastructure achieve better financial performance by servicing as many customers as possible, and thus marketing to the masses. The economies of scale related to running and owning a network mean “big is best”.

The MVNO advantage comes from being able to target a specific subset of the community without the competing requirement to achieve network economies of scale.

Established operators such as Sprint can get in on the MVNO action by partnering with huge marketing brands such as Virgin.

Other MVNO in the US including Helio (a venture between Korea’s SK Telecom and ISP EarthLink, targets young application hungry consumers) , Amp’d (founded by Peter Adderton who also founded Boost Mobile, targets 18-35 year olds) , Movida (targetted at the hispanic community) and Disney (targetted at families).

Virgin Mobile USA was formed in 2002 and has 4.6 million customers.