MVNO Italy

Are MVNOs the mobile operators saviours?

June 11, 2008 – 10:16 pm
When we here at Strand Consult are out conducting one of our numerous workshops around the world, we cannot help notice how mobile operators are expressing an immense fear of the changes happening on the mobile market. Across Europe, mobile operators have been horrified as the discount mobile wave has rolled across many countries, resulting in drastic price reductions on voice and SMS. This has resulted in mobile operators either already having adapted to these changes in the market or getting ready to change to the new market conditions that have resulted from the entrance of discount mobile telephony on the mobile market.   But discount mobile telephony should be perceived as a transition phase, moving from the phase where mobile operators had a "one size fits all" strategy, to a market that mostly consists of a great number of segmented mobile providers without their own networks and where discount mobile providers ...

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Ready, set, go!

June 6, 2008 – 4:27 pm
Ready, set, go! Bulgaria’s Communication Regulation Commission (CRC) said on June 3 that it would call an auction to award a fourth mobile phone licence with national coverage, in the 1800 MHz frequency range. The auction will take place at the end of July, with a starting price of 38 million leva, CRC adviser Albena Miroshnikova told The Sofia Echo. CRC said in a media statement that it would call a secret-bidding auction for the 20-year licence. In line with the requirements of the Electronic Communications Act, CRC will publish the details on the auction in the State Gazette by June 10, the statement said. As previously reported by The Sofia Echo, CRC published the list of companies that put in letters of interest for the licence only after if found itself under pressure to reveal the names of the bidders. CRC said that it published the list because of “increased public interest”, ...

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Global telcos eye ‘virtual route’ for Indian mobile foray

June 6, 2008 – 2:25 pm
New Delhi, With acquiring a new telecom licence in the country becoming a daunting task, global telecom majors including BT (formerly British Telecom), Verizon and France Telecom have approached the telecom regulator to open up the mobile market for the entry of Mobile Virtual Network Operators (MVNO). MVNOs are a category of service providers who take bandwidth and infrastructure on wholesale from existing mobile operators and then resell it in the market with their own branding and tariff plans. With more than 300 applications for a new telecom licence awaiting clearance from the Department of Telecom, chances of these global players entering the fastest growing mobile market appears slim unless they acquire or decide to bid for 3G spectrum whenever the policy is announced. Infrastructure-free Through the MVNO route, these telecom companies will be able to foray into the mobile space without owning any infrastructure or spectrum or even waiting for a licence. Virgin ...

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Mobilking’s results after three months of operating

June 5, 2008 – 4:13 pm
One of the newest mobile virtual network operators (MVNOs), Mobilking, which was launched at the end of February this year, has 45,000 customers and upholds its plans to win a total of 200,000 by the end of 2008. The company’s managing director, Tomasz Rudnicki, explained that the first data on user resignations will be available six months from the launch, since even the cheapest top-up extends the facility to answer incoming calls by six months. According to Mobilking’s representatives, it intends to lower the calling price, as the regulator is to reduce mobile termination rates (MTRs) in June. They say that Mobilking is the fifth-largest mobile operator in Poland and the biggest MVNO. The Office of Electronic Communication (UKE) assumes in its regulatory strategy that by the end of 2010 virtual network operators will control 10% of the market by value. There are 191 entities registered with the UKE as telecom entrepreneurs as of ...

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France Telecom Makes $46.8 Billion Takeover Bid for TeliaSonera

June 5, 2008 – 9:03 am
Bloomberg France Telecom SA, Europe's third- biggest telephone company, said it offered 282.9 billion kronor ($46.8 billion) to buy Sweden's TeliaSonera AB. The offer values TeliaSonera at 63 kronor a share, France Telecom said in a statement today distributed by PRNewswire. The price is 41 percent above TeliaSonera's closing stock price on April 15, the day before France Telecom's interest in buying TeliaSonera became public.

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Bharti switches track, eyes MVNO for global presence

June 4, 2008 – 4:09 pm
The Financial Express New Delhi - After the MTN debacle, Bharti Airtel Ltd, the country’s largest mobile service provider, will no longer eye big acquisitions across the globe. In a change of strategy, the company will opt for the mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) model to increase its footprint overseas than outright acquisitions. The company has identified 27 countries for the MVNO model, which it believes would be more feasible and less time-consuming to materialise. The strategy could even see the company acquiring MVNOs with a controlling stake across the globe. The move, sources say, is in line with the company’s strategy of hedging against stiff competition in future, once the MVNO route is allowed in India too. Telecom Regulatory Authority of India had recently released its consultation paper on whether or not to allow the MVNO model in the country. Under MVNO, an operator does not have a telecom licence or infrastructure ...

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Virtual network operators look for a niche

June 4, 2008 – 4:06 pm
IHT MILAN: Selling cellphone services without actually having to own the network of antennas or the license to use the radio waves seemed like a good idea - so good that these companies, so-called mobile virtual network operators, proliferated over the last decade. Worldwide, there are now about 350 of the virtual operators, which buy time for calls on a wholesale basis from the actual owners of the networks and then resell it to consumers. Some have found success, including several in Denmark, where more than 20 virtual operators have cornered a quarter of the market. In Germany, too, the upstarts have grabbed a similar share. Yet many of the newcomers have already shut down in Europe and the United States, where the failures include Walt Disney, which shuttered its operations last year, and its ESPN division, which did the same in 2006. "A shakeout is inevitable because there are too many operators and ...

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The Spanish Emerging MVNO Market Moves Slowly but Changes Are to Impact the Industry Next Year

June 2, 2008 – 4:23 pm
US mobile market set to change significantly in 2008, with a move of the incumbents towards flat voice tariffs. InfoCom?s research shows how this trend is different from happenings in Europe. FPRC -- In some countries the MVNO market is starting to become already as mature and in some cases MVNOs are even disappearing after a successful business cycle ? at least for some of them. Though in Spain, this market moves rather slowly: from the first symptoms of market interest until the point at which MVNOs become established, more than 6 years passed. And to catch up on the time lost, it seems that Spanish companies find their own way to bridge the time gap by rebranding existing companies as MVNOs. This is what happened with Yoigo ? an established mobile carrier with license for 3G ? and Euskaltel, the local telecom carrier of the Basque region, offering mobile services since ...

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II European MVNO Summit - Rome

May 23, 2008 – 11:10 am
II European MVNO Summit The Innovative Business Models for Operators & MVNO’s Rome, 26/06/2008 - 27/06/2008  Why you should attend? Fixed Mobile Convergence and the increasing demand for data-video services are developing new opportunities for Mobile Virtual Network Operators. European MVNO can take new advantages from this market evolution while new comers as Italian MVNO must decide if offer just voice service or launch immediately new services. Do not miss this event because You can learn new regulation framework You can listen to current developments with Data, Content, M-Commerce, WiMAX, FMC, IMS You can know how gain market share and implement effective strategies You can have the overview of the Italian scenario after the first agreement of MVNO partnerships You can understand the successful business models to increase your market share Speakers: Chairman : Angelo Marcello ...

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Mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) what are they ?

May 9, 2008 – 1:55 pm
A mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) is a company that provides mobile phone service but does not have its own licensed frequency allocation of radio spectrum, nor does it necessarily have all of the infrastructure required to provide mobile telephone service.[1] A company that does have frequency allocation(s) and all the required infrastructure to run an independent mobile network is known simply as a Mobile Network Operator (MNO). MVNOs are roughly equivalent to the "switchless resellers" of the traditional landline telephone market. Switchless resellers buy minutes wholesale from the large long distance companies and retail them to their customers. An MNO that does not have a frequency spectrum allocation in a particular geographical region may operate as an MVNO in that region. MVNOs can operate using any of the mobile technologies MNOs use, such as Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA), GSM and the Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS). The first commercially successful ...

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