The dispute dates back to March this year when T-Mobile went to court to amend a complex network supply agreement between the companies.
When Virgin Mobile was originally set up T-Mobile agreed to carry the new service over its existing British network.
In return, T-Mobile receives a percentage payment per call from Virgin Mobile - and also receives the usual payments made by the mobile users. To compensate Virgin Mobile for this, T-Mobile then makes an agreed monthly payment back to Virgin Mobile in respect of each user – all 2.6 million of them. The payment amounts to about £4 for each customer.
In March T-Mobile went to court to try to reduce the £4 payment, but failed. The Virgin Group then retaliated by raising another court action in which, according to Computer Weekly, it accused T-Mobile of “material breaches” of the joint venture agreement, and sought to force T-Mobile to sell its stake in Virgin Mobile.
That case is still ongoing. Friday’s ruling concerned the number of customers for whom the £4 payments are to be made. In effect the decision means that this number is increased, and consequently so is the compensation to which Virgin Mobile is entitled.
Virgin Mobile told Reuters that it expected to put in a claim for several million pounds although T-Mobile insisted it would amount to just a few hundred thousand pounds.
T-Mobile is now deciding whether or not to appeal.