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Virgin Mobile leaves Singapore

Virgin Mobile has decided to drop out of the mobile phone race in Singapore after barely a year. The company's shareholders, Singapore Telecommunications and Richard Branson's Virgin Group, announced their intention in a statement Monday, citing weak market conditions in the country. Virgin Mobile does not build physical mobile networks but buys airtime in bulk from existing operators for resale.

"The Singapore mobile market is one of the region's smallest and most mature--with a large number of existing players relative to its population and very little growth," Jonathan Marchbank, managing director of Virgin Mobile Singapore, said in the statement. "As a new operator, we're feeling the full impact from operating in a competitive environment aggravated by the prolonged economic downturn."

CNETAsia?s Irene Tham reported from Singapore.

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