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Tepid Internet in MVNOs
By Mark Evans | February 21, 2005
Last week, Virgin Mobile USA announced it passed the three million subscriber barrier - a eye-catching achievement given the business, which rides on Sprint's wireless network, has been around for only three years. Despite Virgin's success, there does not seem to be enthusiastic interest in MVNOs in North America. One reason is the carriers probably believe there is plenty of grow left in the market without having to use partners to generate growth. In Canada, where penetration is only approaching 50%, it will be interesting to see the Virgin-Bell Canada MVNO partnership, which will launch March 1. It it works, maybe Telus and Rogers will climb onboard. If Virgin makes life miserable for Bell, Rogers and Telus by attracting pre-paid users and people unhappy with paying for minutes they do not use and network access fees, Bell could regret the day it got into bed with Richard Branson.
I would not under-estimate Virgin's appeal. There are plenty of people out there who want a wireless phone but unhappy with what's out there right now. Hopefully, Virgin will show there is an appetite for choice and this will encourage the CRTC to give competition a boost by introducing local-number portability. It may even encourage the fat and happy carriers to offer customers more choice in packages and devices.
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