About MVNOs:

A “Mobile Virtual Network Operator (MVNO)” is an organisation which provides mobile telephony services to its customers, but does not have allocation of spectrum. (UK Ofcom Definition)

The MVNO business model has been introduced successfully in Europe, North America, Australia and is beginning to make inroads in the Tiger-economies of Asia. MVNOs now constitute an integrated part of the telecommunication markets across these regions, and have benefited customers with a wider choice of service and hmobile operator partners with interesting opportunities to expand their market shares and target sub-segments.

Until the arrival of FRiENDi GROUP, no MVNOs existed in the region, but the business model is tried and tested in other parts of the world, with the researcher Blycroft Publishing announcing that there are roughly 230 active MVNOs, as of June 2006.

The mobile sector in SAMEA is in the Infrastructure Competition phase, and ready for the natural next step to Service Competition, where MVNOs become an integrated part of the national telecom markets.

The transition from Infrastructure competition to Service competition with the introduction of MVNOs represents a paradigm shift in market structure – from one-size-fits-all to a fully segmented market approach with more segmented propositions!