Dubai: Cashing in on the craze over unique mobile numbers, Virgin Mobile UAE announced on Monday that it is auctioning off at least 40 premium mobile plans for the first time.
The move follows in the footsteps of its sister company du, which had previously run similar auctions that sold millions of dirhams worth of special phone numbers to residents in the UAE.
In this case, however, winning bidders will also get to enjoy other benefits, such as a free iPhone X or iPhone 8 and data.
According to Virgin Mobile, which is owned by Emirates Integrated Telecommunications Company (EITC), also the parent company of du, the auction has already started and it runs online via a dedicated app until December 23rd.
The bidding is open to everyone through the app Online Auction, which is available on Google Play or Apple app store.
The bidding starts from Dh9,000, and each mobile plan comes with a special number and attractive benefits. Among the special digits to be given away to the highest bidders are 058-5888888, 058-5555558 and 058-5500000.
There are three types of plans being auctioned off and one of them, called Platinum, offers more than 83 hours (5,000 minutes) of national calls, 100 GB for two years and an iPhone X with 256 GB memory.
The Diamond plan gets the user 5,000 national minutes, 100 GB data for 24 months and an iPhone 8 with 32GB memory, while a Silver plan offers 1,200 national minutes and 25GB data for 24 months.
Early this year, du raised Dh4.5 million at the auction of the first, exclusive 0588-8888888, which went to an Indian businessman.
