Orange UK gets three new MVNO partners

Orange’s partnership with pan European Mobile Virtual Network Enabler (MVNE) Transatel has borne its first fruit. The carrier on Monday said it has secured three MVNO deals in the UK, with Unicom, Catalyst and Axis Telecom.

UK mobile operator Orange partnered with Transatel at the end of 2009, targeting the SME market through telecom resellers and community-based brands looking to introduce mobile services. . The platform caters to both prepaid and postpaid segments and claims to be able to bring new MVNO brands to the Orange network in just six weeks.

The three new MVNO’s are expected to launch in the first half of this year. Unicom, the fixed line service provider, will launch as a B2B MVNO selling mobile services, initially to its existing base of some 80,000 customers, and will provide billing for both fixed and mobile services on the same invoice. Catalyst will target niche groups such as students, ethnic minorities and SMEs. And Axis Telecom will provide a mobile offering to its current customer base of over 14,000 businesses and residential customers through a number of SIM only deals

Marc Overton, vice president of wholesale, business development & partnerships at Orange UK, said: “Orange has very ambitious plans to become the network partner of choice for new and existing MVNOs. This latest news shows that we are well on our way to achieving this and our ambition to have twenty new MVNO’s on the Orange network by the end of the year.

The MVNO Industry Summit will take place in Barcelona, May 11 – 12, 2010