Virgin Mobile, part of British communications group Virgin Media, Sunday launched youth-oriented mobile services in India through telecom operator Tata Teleservices Ltd (TTL).

The deal brings a tie-up between two of world's leading business leaders - Ratan Tata of the Tata Group and Sir Richard Branson of the Virgin conglomerate.

Branson, chairman of the Virgin Group, launched the Virgin Mobile brand by flying down the façade of popular hotel in south Mumbai and unveiled its logo in mid flight.

TTL will launch Virgin Mobile in 50 cities initially and in more than 1,000 cities by the year-end, Branson told reporters during the launch.

The maverick millionaire expects to get five million subscribers over the first three years with special value-added services and handsets priced between $50-$125.

"Our aim is not to get as many subscribers as possible but we want to deliver this brand to a more distinct segment," he said.

This is Virgin Mobile's seventh launch globally, after the success of Sprint in the US and Bell Mobility in Canada, the UK, France, South Africa and Australia.

"This is Virgin's largest investment in India till now," he added, without divulging any figures.

Virgin Mobile is the world's first mobile virtual network operator (MVNO). It does not maintain its own network but enters into contracts to use the existing networks of other providers, on which it offers services under the Virgin brand.

"Since MVNOs are not yet permitted in India, our services will be offered by Tata Teleservices through a brand franchise with Virgin Group," said Jamie Heywood, deputy chief executive officer of Virgin Mobile India.

According to Heywood, there are more than 215 million Indians between the age group of 14-25 years.

"Over the next three years, we expect the segment to grow by 50 million. Keeping our strategy in minds in next three years we want to grab 10 percent of the market," Heywood told IANS.

He expects to have revenue over Rs.350 billion ($8.74 billion) in this segment in the next three years.

After the success in this network, Virgin plans to extend its services in GSM network.

At present, TTL, a pioneer in CDMA service, has a customer base of over 4.58 million.

Anil Sardana, managing director of TTL, said: "We are very excited about our association with Virgin and offer a world class experience to our youth segment."

The handsets offering will be 100 percent colour and will have a variety of value added services like the customers will get 10 paise credit for every incoming minute they receive from any network and can have unlimited access to various portals for a daily charge of Rs. 5.