23 December 2010 by Rebecca
There are Asian radio stations, TV channels, news networks:
every conceivable kind of media, in fact. All cater to a swathe of
the UK population that wants to stay true to its cultural roots.
But Sacha Vikram has found the last gap in the market: an Asian
mobile network. Desi Mobi, Visram's new venture, lets British
Asians talk to family overseas for the same price as a local call -
without the pesky phone cards. Here's how he got the start-up off
the ground.
Desi
Mobi is an MVNO - a virtual network that piggybacks off
existing mobile base stations. Think Virgin, Tesco Mobile and the
like. This has allowed Visram to keep start-ups costs relatively
low. That's not to say it hasn't taken a substantial wedge of
investment to launch Desi Mobi: Visram has thrown "many millions"
of private equity funding at the project to date.
But the network's USP should do much of the hard work from this
point on. The brand name evokes a sense of home to all Asian
nationalities. The deal is hot to trot: cheap calls across the
world without lengthy dial-in codes or cards. This will send the
brand viral very quickly.
Social marketing is a given as Desi Mobi will have a significant
presence online. But Visram has also struck deals with high street
retailers to resell the Desi Mobile package on the ground. And
Visram is a true trailblazer in this industry: "A British Asian
mobile network has never been done before," he says. "And as a
British Asian myself, I know how to tap into this market.
We think this business is really going places. You heard it here
first.
Listen to the full interview with deputy editor
Rebecca Burn-Callander and Sacha Visram below.
Download MP3 file directly
Find
out more about Desi Mobi.