The MVNO Directory 2011, published June 2011, found 381 companies offering mobile services as either an MVNO or mobile service provider. From these 381 companies we identified some 433 active operations and/or resellers.
> 182 Pages
> 645 MVNOs (515 companies)
> 1,200 named contacts
> 205 new companies in 1 year
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.
The MVNO Directory 2011 - Profiles & 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. .
Australia | Denmark | Ireland | Spain | Netherlands | UK | USA
Reasons to Purchase:
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
The directory does not include subscriber data, personal e-mail addresses or direct-line telephone numbers. All information is provided where possible. Data gathered for the 4th edition was sourced during March 2010.
What is an MVNO? There are many theories and statements from the mobile industry defining what makes up an MVNO. Technical terms such as minutes of use and spectrum allocation are used in defining true MVNOs. The most straight forward definition is an MVNO is any mobile operator which does not own a physical network. Even that definition has its exceptions but it is the most widely accepted and as such is used for The MVNO Directory.
The theory is, if a company sells a mobile phone service to an end user and manages the relationship with that user (including the processes of billing and marketing) then they are performing the function of the operator. However, they lack a physical existence as they use another operator?s base stations - so they are acting virtually. The operator which owns the base stations is therefore a mobile network operator (MNO) and the virtual company is a mobile virtual network operator (MVNO). Using this definition means that mobile service providers are incorporated into the MVNO space.
RESEARCH PROCESS
Each edition of The MVNO Directory, now in its 5th edition, builds upon the previous. The process begins by taking the existing list of operations and removing the information from the database which is likely to have changed since the previous edition, such as the contact information and the management teams.
MVNO news published since the previous edition is reviewed to ensure the list of operators is up to date (with any launches being added to the directory and withdrawals removed). One of the main sources for this research came from the paid for MVNO News service operated throughout 2009. Blycroft also researches and authors a directory of MNOs and publishes a weekly research services about AME, Africa & Middle East Telecom Week. These services help towards the MVNO Directory update process.
This process provides a significant list of companies for individual review via Internet research and direct contact. The research team for each edition has remained the same so buyers of past editions can expect to see the same high standard of accuracy in this new edition.
Our researchers are skilled in finding hard to find data. They spend a great deal of time making efforts to ensure that profiles are as complete as possible. Samples are available upon request to demonstrate this.
FORMATS AND PRICING
Pricing and delivery formats are detailed below. Please note that we do not send files until we have received payment. Upon receiving payment we will e-mail the files directly to the named user(s). Pricing in USD and EURO are available upon request.
If you have any questions please contact us.
PDF Single user, PDF - GBP 995.00
This license allows for the PDF to be used by 1 named person. It may not be shared with colleagues or redistributed or reassigned from the named user. The PDF may not be shared with contractors.
PDF + Excel single user, - GBP 1,295.00
This license allows for the Excel and PDF files to be used by a named person. It may not be transferred to persons other than the named contact. The licence does not allow for the files to distribute via or upload to an Intranet. The files may not be shared with contractors, unless the contractor(s) are named users.
Enterprise licence PDF - GBP 1,395
Enterprise licence PDF + Excel - GBP 1,995
This licence allows for usage of the Excel and PDF files throughout the entire organisation.
Contractors may access the files for use when solely employed by the same organisation and it is the licensed organisation?s responsibility to ensure that contractors do not retain copies of the files once their work is complete with the organisation.
It is also the licensed organisation's responsibility to ensure that the contractor does not use the files for their alternative client base and for projects unrelated to the licensed organisation. If the licensed organisation is unable to control this then they should not provide access to contractors. Breaches of these terms and damages to Blycroft Ltd as a result of allowing contractors access to these files will be made liable against the licensed organisation where reasonable efforts were not made to ensure adherence to these terms.
No license permits for the distribution of the files in whole or part outside of the licensed organisation. With the exception of providing the list to a recognised mailing house which will not retain a copy of the list. All intellectual property rights remain with Blycroft Ltd. Licenses are non-transferable and may not be sold or exchanged.
Blycroft Ltd reserves the right to uniquely digitally encode files so that the original licensee can be traced and to seed lists to protect its intellectual property rights. Any digital encoding will be done so as not to cause problems to the end user and are done solely as a measure to ensure adherence to the license terms and conditions.
