NEW YORK, Sept 25 Virgin Mobile USA Inc, a venture of Sprint Nextel and Virgin on Tuesday

NEW YORK, Sept 25 (Reuters) Virgin Mobile USA Inc, a venture of Sprint Nextel and Virgin on Tuesday filed for an initial public offering worth up to $467.5 million, earmarked for repaying debts and general purposes.

Virgin, which sells mobile services to young people who pay for phone calls in advance, expects to price 27.5 million Class A common shares at $15 to $17 per share.

The wireless communications services provider plans to sell about 25.6 million shares while stockholders will sell an additional 1.95 million shares, according to an amended filing with the U.S.

Securities and Exchange Commission.

It will not receive proceeds for the shares being sold by being sold by shareholders, it said.

Another U.S. mobile provider MetroPCS raised $1.15 billion in its initial public offering in April.

Virgin does not plan to pay dividends to its Class A shareholders and will instead keep earnings for operations and debt reduction.

The Warren, New Jersey-based company said it applied for a New York Stock Exchange listing under the symbol ''VM.'' REUTERS DKS KN1808