Virgin Mobile has launched GSM services in five circles in south India – Chennai, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka – in South India. Calls within the circles will be charged at the rate of 20 paise for STD.

The call charges will be 40 paise per minute for local and 50 paise per minute for STD calls to other circles. Virgin Mobile’s GSM services come in three attractive offers viz vMingle Service, vGenie Service and vBelong Service.

In a related development Virgin Mobile has signed up Rocket Singh aka Ranbir Kapoor and Genelia D’Souza as its brand ambassadors. The company is known for its whacky advertising, the telecom operator will feature the duo mainly in television commercials.

Virgin is already offering services using CDMA (Code Division Multiple Access) technology through Tata since 2008.

Virgin did not disclose the number of CDMA subscribers it has in the country.

Tata, a CDMA player, started last year also offering services on the GSM standard under the Tata DoCoMo brand, to take advantage of the booming GSM market. NTT DoCoMo is a key shareholder in Tata Teleservices.

Nimbuzz has partnered with Virgin Mobile India (VMI) to offer its multibrand WAP chat application to Virgin Mobile under the brand name of Vchatter, allowing users to access multiple instant messengers from a single login.

In the first phase, Vchatter will allow Virgin Mobile users to chat in the familiar Vbytes (Virgin Mobile’s WAP portal) environment. Vchatter brings a one click log-in to multiple IMs like Yahoo Messenger, Gtalk, MSN Messenger, Facebook, Skype etc. via the Vbytes portal for free. The application brings all your messenger contacts into a single common friend list.

The second phase is expected to begin by the end of September.

The Vchatter wapsite will be hosted and maintained by Nimbuzz, while the promotion will be done by VMI.

Nimbuzz expects 10 per cent of the Virgin subscribers to begin using the application in the first year.

Virgin Mobile has launched its slider handset, vGlide targeted at the Indian youth. This new handset comes with a 65k color, 1.8-inch large screen and includes FM radio, speaker phone and games among other features.

The vGlide comes in a paprika red color and boasts of a soft-touch finish. The phone also comes with lifetime validity and a starter user kit worth Rs. 499. It offers prepaid connection, lifetime incoming validity, 499 free local minutes and 499 free local SMSes valid for 60 days.

The phone’s other features include access to Vbytes – Virgin Mobile’s data portal- from where one can download wallpapers, ringtones, games, Tring Tunes (Virgin Mobile’s ringback tones) at a daily access charge of just Rs. 5. A travel charger and stereo headset also accompany the phone.

Stylish handset is priced at Rs. 2,399.