MVNA model a winner financially for both MNOs and MVNOs

Telecoms.com periodically invites expert third parties to share their views on the industry’s most pressing issues. In this piece Shamik Biswas, Head of Marketing, Plintron shares his thoughts on the MVNO market.

Setting up a MVNO normally is an onerous task with a lot of resource requirements for an MVNO. Even an MNO has to spend time and resources in planning for a wholesale /MVNO business model. The MVNA model pioneered by entities like Plintron catalyses the creation of MVNOs. The MVNA is an intermediary who makes setting up of an MVNO business easy as it provides a complete end to end package to both the MVNO and the MNO.

MVNA benefits for MNO include: – Availability of a full telecom SaaS stack from a single source saving the efforts of negotiating with multiple vendors. Single point interface with an MVNA saves the costs and effort in integrating & on-boarding multiple MVNOs. A single MVNA partner also reduces the complexity & risk of dealing with multiple networks and faster problem resolution in case of any malware or cyber-attacks.

The MVNA model also offers a choice of deployment – Public, On Premises or Private and supports a scalable, multi–tenanted solution with each MVNO operating independently with customised features.

MVNA also helps in a faster launch of MVNO business by MNOs. MVNAs like Plintron invest in the required OPEX and CAPEX entailing no investment by the MNO. All regulatory requirements are also managed by the MVNA.

All the above results in massive cost savings in terms of man years plus additional earnings due to faster time to market for the MVNA translating to a conservative estimate of $0.5 million in sales & admin costs and $2.2 million per MVNO on-boarded.  The MVNA model also helps support multiple MVNO and GTM models – Full, Light, Branded Reseller etc. and also helps cater to a variety of under catered niche segments. This maximises the revenue opportunity for the MNO.

In short, an MVNA acts as the wholesale business partner of the MNO and even invests its own local sales & marketing team which act as an extension of the MNO team and help in crafting an appropriate localised GTM strategy.

The MVNA model is also the best solution for the MVNOs with huge benefits: MVNAs offer a  complete end to end package  right from the telecom SaaS stack of BSS, OSS, NSS ,GW  to  the  wholesale airtime contract. MVNOs save about $3 million in infrastructure & technology and about $2 million in opportunity cost due to faster time to market.

MVNA model offered by entities like Plintron involves negligible capital expenditure and offers a scalable & affordable solution ensuring low entry barriers. The MVNA model is customisable as per MVNO requirements, & compatible with multiple market model. MVNAs like Plintron also offer    Mobile Number ranges, MNP, SIMs & roaming alliances

MVNAs like Plintron have multi-lingual support and offer Customer care support, Self-care app, GTM, regulatory & technology support by domain experts and access to third party partners for VAS, CVM and other services.  They also offer payment gateways and are complaint with local regulatory norms.

Hence MVNAs enable any brand to become an MVNO in order to increase customer engagement and loyalty. They can concentrate on their core competence of sales & marketing to their customers while the MVNA takes care of the telecom and regulatory aspects.  Hence MVNA model is win-win for both MNOs & MVNOS.