The MVNO Directory 2011 - 5th Edition
(Mobile virtual network operators and major resellers)
Blycroft Publishing 182 Pages |
 |
Overview
645 operations are profiled for this 5th edition of the directory and are presented as 515 company profiles. This is the resource for making contact with this rapidly evolving market.
5 years ago the 1st edition of The MVNO Directory tracked a market of just over 200 MVNOs. Many said the "MVNO fad" would not last and that the market was already in decline. 5 years on the new total stands at 645 operations operated by 515 companies. Within just 5 years the industry has more than tripled with new operations constantly coming to market.
MVNOs, mobile virtual network operators, are mobile service offerings from organisations which typically neither own licensed mobile spectrum nor operate a physical base station network and backhaul. Of course, there are exceptions to the rule but the essential factor is that an MVNO cooperates with an MNO for network access. MNOs are traditional mobile companies such as Orange, SingTel and Vodafone. For this research, both MVNOs and resellers (which act as the provider to the subscriber) are included.
Operations owned by MNOs are not counted; these are brands launched by MNOs and are therefore part of the MNO, not a distinct and separate company. MNOs are profiled within The MNO Directory. Found separately within The MVNO Directory, is a list of over 550 companies named by other publishers as being active MVNOs, incorrectly. For each of these companies the researchers have provided a short reason as to why the company has not been included as an MVNO.
Research and Coverage
Process
The MVNO Directory is now in its 5th edition, the 1st edition was published back in 2006. Each directory update begins with a media review; the researchers take the previous edition and amend the core database with launches, causalities and enhancements. At this stage the focus is upon ensuring that the Blycroft list of active MVNOs provides an ideal starting point for the update. The media review took place during March 2011 and consisted of comparing and contrasting mainly industry specific news, with the inclusion of relevant blogs and non traditional media.
205 operations were identified as new to The MVNO Directory. Profiles were created for each of these services while 66 operations were removed; being those which ceased trading, merged into other operations or were out by their host MNO. Not all MVNOs vanish, some such as Videotron evolve to the next stage and become MNOs.
Having exhausted the media review the researchers then focus on individual operations. During April and May the researchers examined every entry individually. This allowed for the main update and the inclusion of 2 new data fields to the 5th edition, being the recording of operations which offer Mobile Broadband and noting which offer handsets and which only offer SIM cards.
Coverage
The MVNO Directory seeks to profile all MVNOs and major resellers. It does not include fixed networks, traditional mobile networks or WiMAX operations. There are many free resources which provide a wealth of useful information about the industry. Unfortunately these services have over estimated the size of the market and tend not to remove inactive MVNOs or those which did not get beyond the planning stage. It would be impossible to provide a list of every company which is not an MVNO but from the media review and in-house research the researchers identified over 500 operations commonly referred to as active MVNOs, which are not. These are listed separately within The MVNO Directory with reasoning to assist readers in understanding the MVNO market.
To be included the operation should provide a mobile network based service to an end user. The MVNO should be responsible for that relationship on an ongoing basis but has to work with an MNO to provide the connectivity for the service. True MVNOs purchase minutes of use from MNOs, but being able to confirm this means seeing the contracts between MVNO and MNO, which are not public domain information. Therefore the directory does not provide classification of MVNO or reseller. The researchers aim to include every country offering these services.
Expertise
Reasons to Buy
Companies purchase The MVNO Directory mainly to enable the expansion of their business. The world of MNOs consists of nearly 800 operators with many of these operations owned and operated by a select club; namely Vodafone, France Telecom, Telefonica, Zain, etc. The MVNO market on the other hand is much more fragmented, which is to the benefit of many. Each operation typically operates in just one country or across a specific region, such as the Benelux countries or Germany and Austria.
Operations are normally targeted at a niche group within society and parent companies are often seeking to expand and develop upon established client bases from other sectors. This can easily mean that the management of these smaller operations are keener to hear of methods, practices and products which will assist them to do business better; more so than established MNOs with massive research and development departments made up of teams of in house developers and experts.
MNOs themselves also utilise the MVNO Directory to help guide their MVNO strategy and in some cases MNOs have entered markets as MVNOs rather than purchasing spectrum and building out additional networks. Within the solutions sector companies have used The MVNO Directory as the decision maker as to whether or not to target their products at MVNOs.
Other key reasons we have identified for purchasing The MVNO Directory are as follows:
Valid list of operators
If you had the time you could compile a list of operations; you would certainly find Virgin Mobile, Tesco Mobile and many other big names with relative ease. This is the 5th edition of The MVNO Directory with research dating back to 2006. Google searches and Wikipedia alone will not provide the accuracy and access to data needed to be able to construct a comparable database in a cost effective time frame.
Expertise
The same researchers for the 4 previous editions of The MVNO Directory have compiled this year's edition. This consistency and experience helps to ensure that standards are maintained from each edition to the next.
Time taken to research
The MVNO Directory 2011 takes advantage of ongoing in-house research services and initially called upon a year's worth of these resources to update the list of companies to include. This list then had to be validated and cross referenced with external resources. Having compiled the list during March 2011 the research process then began, which took the months of April and May to complete.
Work for the directory is performed by experienced researchers. Their experience means they are quicker and more adept than most people at finding this information. Buying this data off the shelf takes away the management and training issues which you would come across with such a routine and repetitive task.
The researchers had to review 1,200 operations to produce the final dataset.
5 years of improvement
This is the 4th edition of The MVNO Directory. Each edition sees an improvement in coverage as the researchers discover more of the hidden operators. The researchers are also able to fill in further data points each year which were not captured in previous editions.
Who buys the The MVNO Directory
- OSS / BSS companies
- Mobile content developers
- MAPOS companies
- Mobile network operators
- Mobile virtual network enablers
- MVNO start-ups
- Financial and telecommunication analysts
Management contacts
The MVNO Directory 2011 contains over 1,200 named management contacts. These people are selected from the MVNOs' senior management teams and feature job titles such as President, CEO (Chief Executive Officer), CFO (Chief Financial Officer), CTO (Chief Technology Officer), CCO (Chief Commercial Officer) CMO (Chief Marketing Officer), Executive and Senior Vice Presidents plus other senior positions. It is not feasible to provide direct e-mail or telephone numbers for these people so you will not find these within the directory; to get such information would require the individuals to volunteer their correct contact information for 3rd party marketing, which is something a senior executive will not do.
446 profiles have at least 1 contact listed. We avoid listing the same person twice, even though they may manage multiple MVNOs across different countries. The majority of profiles with no named contact are very niche operations targeting fewer than 10,000 subscribers.
Profiles and Samples
Profiles
- Active operation profiles consist of the following data fields (where possible):
- Company name
- Operation name(s)
- Geographic focus
- URL(s)
- Telephone (mainly switchboard numbers, customer service numbers provided where no alternative found)
- Fax
- Address
- Launch date
- Parent company name / industry / URL
- MVNE partner name / URL
- Carrier (MNO) partner name / URL
- Management contacts (named contacts and job titles for 466 companies - usually within the senior management team)
- Target customer type
- Billing method (pre-pay / post-pay)
- Messaging offered (SMS / MMS)
- Roaming status (international)
- Mobile Internet status
- SIM only or if handsets offered
- Mobile Broadband status
The MVNO Directory does not include subscriber data. Only about 10% of MVNOs release subscriber data, estimating 90% of a market is beyond the scope of this directory.
All information is provided where possible. Blycroft does not accept liability for incorrect data or losses as a result of using the directory. By purchasing the directory you agree to this condition.
Samples
Below are several pages taken from the current MVNO Directory. These pages demonstrate the level of information available within the directory. If you have further questions please contact us.
You can also download an Excel sample.
Formats and Pricing
- Single user - 1 named person
PDF - GBP 995 (Add to cart)
PDF & Excel - GBP 1,295 (Add to cart) - 5 users - 5 named people
PDF - GBP 1,195 (Add to cart)
PDF & Excel - GBP 1,495 (Add to cart)
- 10 users - 10 named people
PDF - GBP 1,295 (Add to cart)
PDF & Excel - GBP 1,695 (Add to cart)
- Enterprise usage - Intranet and all employees
PDF - GBP 1,395 (Add to cart)
PDF & Excel - GBP 1,995 (Add to cart)
Delivery is by e-mail, up to 24 working hours (orders submitted during UK working hours will be processed by staff immediately). Upon receiving payment we will e-mail the files directly to the named user(s).
Pricing in USD and EURO is available upon request and invoices available in GBP, USD and EURO - please contact us to request an invoice if you do not want to pay online.
