MVNO

An MVNO, or mobile virtual network operator, is a company that sells mobile plans under its own brand while using another operator's network. It owns no towers and holds no spectrum, the radio frequencies that a government licenses to operators. It buys capacity in bulk from an operator that does own a network, called the host operator, and resells it to its own customers.

Here is how it works in general. The MVNO signs a wholesale agreement with the host operator. It issues its own SIM cards and sells its own plans, at its own prices. When its customers make calls or use data, the calls and data travel over the host operator's towers and fibre. The host counts that usage and bills the MVNO at the wholesale rate. The MVNO bills its own customers and keeps the difference. Some MVNOs only do the marketing and customer care, and rent everything else. Others run their own core network software, their own billing and charging and their own SIM activation, and rent only the radio network. The software for both kinds belongs to an operator's OSS and BSS.

Why would anyone do this? The host operator earns money from spare capacity, and reaches customers it would not reach on its own. The MVNO can sell to a group of people it knows well, without spending thousands of crores on towers and spectrum.

In India, the Department of Telecommunications created a licence for virtual network operators (VNOs) in 2016. Consumer MVNOs have stayed rare in India, where a few large operators already sell plans at very low prices. They are common in many other countries.

Take, for example, a supermarket chain in Britain that sells mobile plans under its own name on a large operator's network, with discounts for its regular shoppers.

Consider a company that connects thousands of electricity meters and vehicle trackers. Many IoT connectivity management companies supply their own SIM cards, which run on host operators' networks in many countries.

How is an MVNO different from roaming? A roaming customer belongs to one operator and uses another operator's network for a short time, usually abroad. An MVNO's customers belong to the MVNO, and always use its host operator's network. An MVNO is also different from network sharing, such as a distributed antenna system in a mall. There, several operators that do own networks share one set of equipment.