MVNOs World will make you question your strategy and get it right. Here’s how.

This year’s MVNO’s World in Vienna will bring together MVNOs from around the globe. The event has long acted as an anchor in the MVNO diary. A point to exchange ideas, debate changes and strike commercial deals.

This year’s meet will be no different and will cover perhaps one of the most wide-ranging and exciting line ups I’ve ever known.

Technology has always been a feature but, this year, I think we’ll see practical examples of the ‘bleeding edge’ in action. Speakers from across the world will share their lived experience of how the next generation of AI data-led tools are helping to grow market share with untapped customer segments, through to best practice deployments of eSIM to grow a brand’s reach.

To support the discussions that these keynotes will provoke, there will be breakout masterclasses run by Graystone Strategy. These will look at how MVNOs can create their own successful strategies for understanding customers, launching exciting propositions and building a trajectory for growth.

The timing of the conference and these masterclasses couldn’t be better, given three significant announcements. These will provoke some disruption and existing and new MVNOs need to be ready to respond.

Three exciting new MVNO announcements in the last week!

In retail, the German electronics brand, Media Markt, announced its MVNO Let’s Go Mobile will expand and launch in the Netherlands, as part of the group’s omni-channel strategy.

This is a classic example of leveraging retail distribution, both physical and online, to build an additional and sustainable revenue stream from mobile services.

Given Media Markt’s engagement with tech savvy customers, this feels like a winning strategy. Here in the UK, Currys has successfully been running iD mobile for around 10 years amassing over 2m customers. That’s a lot of incremental and dependable monthly revenue that Media Markt will be aiming to replicate.

Next there’s Revolut. I’ve come to describe Revolut as a restless brand. It made headlines when it launched a travel eSIM proposition for VIP customers. It’s now planning to expand the offer into the wider UK and German market, with the expectation more could follow. This is significant, because it makes the move from offering a travel solution to becoming the primary domestic SIM. It will allow Revolut to aggressively take share from MVNOs and MVNOs in the UK and Germany.

This is a prime example of how a financial services brand can gain significant traction by launching complementary MVNO services using digital technologies. Why wouldn’t you expect to use your banking app to add an eSIM for your holidays? And if it works well, it’s low effort to switch to using Revolut for your primary SIM.

Hot on the tail of those two announcements, there have been several press reports that YCorp, an MVNO-in-a-box provider, will create an MVNO for Octopus Energy. The Telegraph said it ‘could shake up the telecoms industry’.

That remains to be seen, execution is everything. However, this is a segment where there’s a precedent. In the UK’s Utility Warehouse leads the way. Its well established proposition continues to post credible growth numbers linked to its multi-play offer. New entrants are still popping up as news from Greece proves. Multi-play brand, Volton, is making headway with its MVNO.

Financial services, retail and utilities MVNOs are driving growth globally

Financial services, retail and utility are the three sectors that come up time and again in analyst reports looking at MVNO potential. They all have large customer bases to draw on and brand value that consumers trust.

To give you an idea of what’s at stake, and depending on which analyst report you read, there will be a breathtaking jump in market value, rising from $85Bn in 2024 to $155bn in 2031, with most geographies posting growth.

Jupiter’s reports are starting to look at the global MVNO-in-a-box market specifically – effectively the services that enable MVNOs to get to market quickly. A three-fold growth is expected in the enablement market alone, reaching over $1bn in value.

Are these numbers pie in the sky? I don’t think so. But you must have the right ingredients and recipe.

Firstly, all the brands I’ve mentioned above, have access to customers, whether that is through a retail estate or digital means. They have a pre-existing relationship that they can leverage for a cost-effective cross sell.

The cost of acquisition is a critical factor in any MVNO business case so brands with established and significant existing customer relationships have a head start.

Revolut has over 50m customers globally, Octopus has 7m households as customers in the UK, and that’s a substantial addressable market when you consider UK average household size is 2.36 people. We see similarly exciting numbers with European counterparts – Media Markt boasts 2.2billion customer contacts annually across all their markets and channels.

Secondly, these are trusted brands and importantly brands that are trusted in providing critical services in digital channels. If you trust an organisation with all your money, or to power your home, it’s not a big leap to trust them to provide you with other critical services such as telecoms.

And that’s at the crux of much of the MVNO market growth. The original reasons for setting up MVNOs was to increase share of wallet – effectively sell more products and services into existing customers.

Using telecoms helps boost the brand’s importance to the customer is still a valid premise today. But increasingly, we see mobile being used to drive the core business metrics harder. Whether that’s using mobile to develop a more rewarding premium banking service or to enhance loyalty schemes that increase spend at retail outlets overall and make customers more loyal and less likely to leave. (Superdrug does this brilliantly.)

I’m a big advocate for the strategic benefits of using MVNOs in this way. Firstly, it’s likely the prize brands are chasing is larger than the margins pure telecoms can produce.

Secondly, when brands actively adopt an MVNO strategy, the mobile proposition becomes more differentiated. Segmentation insights are used more wisely, and customer preferences and behaviours are reflected in the mobile offers brands launch. There’s more innovation, creating more friction in the market, and hence they are far more likely to be successful.

Innovation is so important given all the market developments. So, if your brand is contemplating a telecoms adventure, then attending MVNOs World in Vienna will only help to cement your ideas, help you make the connections you’ll need to be successful and confident you can win.