3G Mobile Virtual Network Operators (MVNOs): Business Strategies, Regulation, and Policy Issues

Abstract

Digital convergence brings new players in the telecom market and the Mobile Virtual Network Operators (MVNO) are an alternative way for companies to enter the 3G telecom market and start offering services. This chapter aims to contribute to the assessment of the market conditions, architectures and potential for profitable business cases of MVNOs aiming to operate in the mature and competitive markets. The results and conclusions provide guidelines for the wide audience of mobile market players and media companies, spanning telecom operators to regulators and academia. In the following, the necessary background information is presented, quantitative figures such as Net Present Value, pay-back period, investment cost, revenues and running cost for different MVNO business cases are estimated and compared. The MVNO’s impacts on a MNO operator and the effects of MVNO collaboration with a WLAN operator are analyzed with the same method and figures.