Global mobile connections have reached 5.3 billion in 2010 and are expected to hit over 7.5 billion by the end of 2015. In spite of the tough economic environment of 2008-2011, we are now facing a slow recovery in terms of year-on-year growth worldwide with the exception of Europe. Despite data services growth in importance, global revenue growth still depends on voice revenues and appears set to remain the greatest contributor to mobile Operators’ revenues in the coming years. On the other…

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Traditionally, MVNEs were perceived as complementary players that provide the “abstraction layer” from the HNO. Besides providing the infrastructure, they support MVNOs with limited telecom expertise or those which do not wish to focus on having control over their network elements, reducing their burden by handling a broad range of services ranging from billing, network element provisioning, administration, operations, thus enabling MVNOs to focus on their core strengths of brand, customer…

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Many flavours of MVNO are possible; however each business must endeavour to come up with its own unique recipe for success. 1. Discount MVNOs Nearly a quarter of existing MVNOs have chosen the discount base MVNO model and their service offering usually includes basic voice and SMS services at lower tariffs for both prepaid and postpaid customers, adding to it the flavor of cheaper handset devices. In terms of long term sustainability this approach can prove to be unyielding. An example…

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On mature telecom markets, upon liberalization, there was a lot of hype around the MVNO threat for incumbents. There are plenty of reasons why HNOs should not consider themselves threatened by MVNOs and all MVNOs negotiating with their chosen HNO should be aware of these aspects. In fact, MVNOs do provide various economic benefits to HNOs as they increase their market share by addressing untargeted or poorly targeted market segments. However hard their marketing department tries, HNOs still…

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Before launching, MVNOs must consider that they will have to be in the business for at least one year before they break even. MVNO launch is usually preceded by six months to one year of start-up costs. Furthermore, they have to consider the post-launch subscriber acquisition costs which vary from country to country. These costs can delay an MVNO’s EBITDA breakeven and require considerable investment. MVNOs need to have a worthy story, a source of differentiation and they must strive to…

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Further to identifying the most suitable operational model, aspirants must thoroughly analyze and find pragmatic answers to countless business issues and challenges, both before and after launch whilst the business and customer bases are growing. Up-front challenges Even though the regulatory environment is increasingly favourable from the strategic point of view, MVNOs are quite vulnerable because they are late entrants in an oversaturated market and small niche players in comparison to…

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MVNOs are providers of mobile communication services that have their own customer base but not their own telecom infrastructure. In order to offer these services, they lease and use the network of a mobile telecom operator. A broad range of operational models were tested, from the lightweight “reseller” MVNO that essentially re-sells minutes/SMSs/data bought from an HNO, through to the “thick” or “full service” MVNO that operates its own customer care, billing system and even…

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As telecom markets become more extremely competitive and highly saturated in developed countries, mobile network operators (MNOs) need to look for alternative ways of attracting new customer segments in order to better utilise existing spare network capacity and to drive revenue growth. One such way is to develop a ready-to-deploy wholesale MVNO strategy. Such a strategy not only helps MNOs to nurture and build opportunities in new niche market areas, but also helps them to build a more…

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