In parallel new business models are appearing which allow providers to enter into this growth market without having their own mobile infrastructure. The logical separation of service delivery, customer administration and network infrastructure results in the new opportunity to provide mobile services with significant added value and differentiation potential without a mobile network license. The traditional service providers can only differentiate their services to a limited extent – to date they have not been able to award their own telephone numbers or carry out customer administration in technical network terms (Home Location Register). The new Mobile Virtual Network Operator (MVNO) business model occupies these areas and thus achieves a greater depth of value creation, without the provider having to operate its own wireless infrastructure.

Requirements and opportunities for MVNOs

In order to take advantage of this potential certain requirements have to be fulfilled. On the one hand the regulation of the market in question must allow or support the technical implementation of the MVNO model through the liberalization of the appropriate part of the value chain. On the other hand a number of standardization hurdles are still to be taken.

Of course, the degree of saturation in the target market and the expected turnover per customer are also important factors when evaluating the chances of success.For some time now, in Europe as well as on the American continent, there have been a number of enterprises working with a variety of strategies based on the MVNO model to address specific mobile market segments. Even within Europe, regulatory frameworks vary significantly. This enabled some companies in northern Europe to position themselves as MVNOs at a relatively early date. A review of these companies can be of great value in terms of analysing and assessing their framework conditions and the main factors leading to their success. Dr. Bert Kiel has taken a close look at the regulatory conditions facing a selection of representative companies in his article "MVNOs forced into the European Mobile Market?"  of this issue of the DMR.