This is primarily due to the facts that the spectrum available with existing operators is on an average is 50 MHz. There are different service / business operational models including Reseller MVNO, Service Operator MVNO, full MVNO.

MVNO forecast

# don’t expect more than handful of Indian companies going in for MVNO

# few overseas companies my enter Indian MVNO market

# BSNL, MTNL will allow MVNOs to operate

# Reliance Communications and Idea Cellular may try

Success factors

Exploit brand awareness

There are good telecom brands with great market penetration and brand recalls. Such brands with deep pockets can exploit their brand image to target specific segments like ethnic groups. Brand positioning and value proposition helps is creating their own niche markets.

Strong relations with MNOs

Since MVNOs are completely dependent on the MNO, they must forge a win-win relationship by having flexible contractual obligations based on forecast of data and voice business. MVNOs must not hit the target market which is seriously on MNOs radar. Going hand in hand with MNO will help MVNOs in getting good commercials and better assistance from the MNOs.

Great Marketing Works

Your brand is already deeply imbibed in customers minds but while selling or offering services you must deploy great marketing works where you must be able to generate enthusiasm ,interest and able to differentiate offerings vis a vis the MNOs. So market segmentation is a must, be very specific and cater to the specific needs without encroaching upon MNOs prime markets.

Focus on Sales and Customer Experience

Sales and customer care / support will play the critical role as a company trying to break into a market where MNOs have operated and controlled is not going to be an easy task. From acquisition to retention it’s going to be an uphill task. POS should be multi-channel and ease of customer enrolments should be of prime focus. Customer experience should be excellent.

Tight Operational Costs

Operational costs must be kept in tight from day one factoring present and future market and compliance risks. Get the right MNO with billing and administration. Airtime cost and customer acquisition cost will be the key factor in controlling operational costs as they may contribute up to 70-80 percent of the total costs.

World MVNO stories

UK-based Virgin Mobile, a popular MVNO, tied up with Tata Teleservices and tried to sell voice and internet services, closed India operations in 2011.

Tata Teleservices has another tie up with Future Group – Talk24Mobile (GSM). It is a royalty program for Future’s retail customers. It’s still active.

Aircel has made similar type of agreement in 2012 with Blyk Mobile, a MVNO in UK. Simpossible was another such service over Aircel, promised to offer some free voice, text and data to its customers. None of them really could really pickup and work well and were closed.

Vodafone NetCruise, powered by MTS EVDO, is the only MVNO initiative that is limited to data services. According to the website, Vodafone Mobile branded services are being offered by MTS through a brand franchise with Mobile Commerce Solutions (MCSL). MCSL will provide MTS with designing, marketing and servicing of Vodafone Mobile products being powered by MTS. This had to be terminated as MTS lost most of the licenses in 2G scam case in 2012.

Matrix Cellular India, though not related to MVNO, rented out bulk SIM cards from Airtel, Idea and Vodafone and billed clients for the voice services. In 2013, the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) sent notices and cancelled all the agreements with Matrix Cellular.

The DoT’s monitoring cell in July 2007 found that 10,145 bulk post paid connections were working in name of Matrix cellular Services.During course of the investigation, DoT found that of the 10,145 bulk connections only 836 mobile numbers were reported by Matrix to it. No information about the rest 9,309 mobile connections was provided.

Global MVNO outlook

MVNOs are expected to grow faster than Mobile Network Operators (MNO); this growth will be driven mainly by developing countries as the European and North American MVNO markets are reaching a plateau. New services such as mobile money and M2M will help driving this growth, but the most important factor is the changing regulatory environment supporting MVNOs.

Telecomlead.com