OK, tell me this is not a nightmare coming to life for those of us who really could do without ads in the mobile space? I must be dreaming…

With the cost of mobile phone calls already dropping sharply, Virgin Mobile USA plans to announce a way that people can talk for no money at all. They will, however, have to pay with a chunk of their attention.

The program, called SugarMama, lets people earn one minute of talking time by watching 30-second commercials on a computer or receiving text messages on their phones, then answering questions to prove they were, in fact, paying attention.
Virgin Mobile, a relatively small cellphone carrier with four million mostly young customers, is aiming the program at teenagers, who can earn up to 75 minutes of free talk time a month.

Howard Handler, chief marketing officer for Virgin Mobile USA, described SugarMama as “someone who shows up and gives you some extra gratification and gets you over the hump” when you are running low on talk time…. Source: NYTimes

[tags]ads,cellphone,virgin mobile,minutes[/tags]