MVNO and Mobile Tech

MVNO - Mobile Virtual Network Operator

For my sins I am one of the most experienced MVNO experts in the world, having worked on the first, the biggest, and most innovative MVNOs, MVNEs and internal MNO wholesale products since the very first MVNOs. I set up the first MVNO blog, the first dedicated MVNO consultancy, and wrote a best selling report along the way.

But MVNO is only part of the story - I have spent most of my professional bringing complex mobile products to market successfully Mobile Virtual Network Operators being one of the main models, but also mobile apps and mobile app stores (see at bottom pf the page, where I have moved the Mobile Apps section). I have an MVNO blog dedicated to this, but here are some key articles:

MVNO - Mobile Virtual Network

A presentation from a conference on how to cost effectively drive data revenue for MVNOs with a customer experience that does not outweigh the benefits is customer care calls.

MVNE, MVNA, MVNO Explained

All the different aspects of MVNOs can be overwhelming so here is a page that will hopefully help describe the different MVNO, MVNE, MVNA definitions.

MVNO, MVNE and MVNA Models in relation to the MNO and Service Providers

Mobile Virtual Network synopsis

A quick one page guide to MVNOs - hopefully get anyone up to speed as quickly as possible on MVNOs

Next Generation MVNOs vs. the original MVNO models

MVNO Tariff and Pricing

Every MVNO I have ever launched is still in business, one of the key contributors is getting the basics right like MVNO product and price as a key part of the overall MVNO marketing strategy. The key is, of course, to keep things simple, which is harder than anyone might think.

MVNO Tariff and pricing is fought with operational and strategic issues

Next Generation MVNO report

I wrote a report on MVNOs back in 2005 which was published by Pyramid Research. It was one of their top 5 best selling reports in 2005 and 2006, despite competition from much wider interest reports on WiMax and LTE, and appears to still be on sale. If you would like a copy get in touch, most of its predictions have proved right, some of the others are still getting there and in previous generation mode, mainly as the opening up of wholesale markets is taking much longer than any regulator or consumer would have liked or predicted in 2005, 5 years after the success of Virgin mobile.

First Mobile Apps

I have been working on mobile apps since 2003, when at first they were seen as an alternative to then expensive SIM Toolkit or handset customisation (requiring large handset volume commitments) for smaller operators, mobile virtual operators and even mobile operators to attract key niche markets or bring niche handsets to market. The first prototypes I saw were apps running on the Ericsson T68!

First distributed mobile apps pre iPhone

In 2006 and 2007 I worked one of the largest app projects pre-iPhone, which was the Nokia Festival guides, a complete interactive festival guide for music festivals available on the key feature phones. This app was run for two years in the Reading and Leeds music festivals as well as the Download hard rock festival. The app was then re-purposed for two years to run the Orange Glasto app (Glastonbury festival app) to 2009.

One of the first mass distributed apps: Nokia Festival guides

Mainstream Apps

In 2009-2012 I worked on various Apps and apps projects for Vodafone, Telefonica, Vertu and another major handset manufacturer. Vodafone was particularly interesting as I was heading up the porting of key iPhone apps and responsible for the showcase launch apps that the CEO presented at the press launch.

Vodafone app store with the first implementation of an active weather view, now used across many devices