About me

Mobile Tech CEO & Founder of Conecto, Virtuser, the first original MVNO Blog, 3T Bike Brand Ambassador

This has now become the legacy blog, while the vlog supporting content and related content will slowly be moved over to the wordpress site which for now has launched on christianborrman.com . It feels like the end of an era, as I started this journey in pages I coded myself in the early 2000’s, and moved everything over to Blogger around 2010. I was tempted then to use wordpress, but the hosting on VPS back then was not as reliable as blogger has of course been and everything has its time and place.

Became a Brand Ambassador for 3T Bike in 2018

Founded the first MVNO consultancy Virtuser in 2001 and the first next generation fully cloud based MVNE Conecto in 2014 because I wanted to make a difference and am passionate about what I do. By making a difference I mean promoting trust, providing the best option for the customer and getting the right solution, not just the closest solution, loaded with change requests that always go wrong, dragging out projects to get more cash or recommending only those that give you a commission, which sadly is more common than you think in mobile, MVNO and IoT.

Sky Running in Pyrenees at 2080m Altitude

In my spare time I try to be a better triathlete, which with a group who started doing them 10 years ago and has taken us to some great places, great times and some "interesting" learning opportunities...

In this blog I try to explain the ups and downs of this process, and my business of mobile tech, in a manner consistent with how I like to work; honestly and openly balancing positive and negative, in order to move forward in the most efficient, pragmatic manner. The posts generally come like busses in my home town of London; nothing for ages then they all come at once, as life, family and work tend to make it hard to make time for this, but do like, subscribe, etc. if you want to know when those busses are coming and want to be part of the journey :)

Speaking at the MVNO Conference which I have chaired, spoken or exhibited at since the first event in 2001

The rest:

I founded Virtuser, the first dedicated MVNO consultancy, in 2001 after five years of experience at Mason Analysis, MCI Worldcom and Cable & Wireless, working on a wide range of telecoms and technology projects, including some of the first MVNOs and new handset and wireless technologies.

Since then, the I have built the company working for start-ups and FTSE 100 companies like Vodafone, Nokia, LG, Vertu, Telefonica and most recently the UK's second largest Energy company SSE: being the first consultant on the ground to kick start their MVNO project, and have spent 18 months building the business, from writing initial requirements, to negotiating key contracts and working on the commercial and marketing strategy.

Summary of main career and other achievements of the last 20+ years

In the last 20 years, I have also served two non-executive directorships positions; the first as Mobile Director with a small £12M start-up Icom, which pioneered the first mass distributed apps for Orange and Nokia; the second with Global ethnic MVNO Lyca Mobile, Where I was Account Director and helped them expand into five new European markets, launch new value added services and carry out the first MVNO migrations from one wholesale provider to another, a process which has since been copied by the likes of Virgin Mobile.

Receiving my Innovation Award in 2003 from the UK Government DTI (Department of Trade and Industry)

I Regularly chair and speak at global mobile conferences for Informa, such as their Mobile Roaming Conference (chaired last three years consecutively) and the MVNO Global Summit ( chaired last five years consecutively). and have been on the judging panel their awards for the last few years as well.

Presenting the award for best MVNE in 2013 in MVNO Rome

Presenting the award for best Wholesale Operator in 2014 on Berlin

In 2005 Pyramid Research published my first industry report "Next Generation MVNOs - a Global Perspective", and started the first and original MVNO blog, mobile apps blog and on-device portal blogs in 2006.

Along the way I picked up a DTI Innovation Award (2003) for research and development of converged mobile over bluetooth and Wi-Fi and built an platform with colleague Keith Milner to provide MVNOs with MVNO specific SMS gateways and the most advanced OTA APN data settings for MVNOs on the market, used by many MVNO, MVNE and MVNAs

I have been very lucky in many ways, mostly in that I have spent the last 20 years working in some of the most exciting projects in mobile and technology working through recommendation and repeat business, luck has played a part of course, but this repeat business only really comes from hard work and the fact that all the MVNOs I have launched are still in business. It has not always been easy; success in mobile requires often dragging some people/teams kicking and screaming towards a launch date, but in the end its what it takes to get the job done and those that matter or employ you again to ensure the next success recognise this.

Well that is the idea, anyway...

Outside of work and private family life, I like to cycle and run, and swim bike run has become a way to keep fit and maintain enough discipline to keep enjoying the cycling and running: you only do a triathlon in bad shape once!