DISQUS

Matthew Stecker · 2 years ago

We're seeing a squeeze from *both* ends. The largest MVNOs have had their well publicized issues, but even the smaller guys who peddle vanilla prepaid to market segments not traditionally touched by the carriers are having problems. Cheif among these is the fact that the carriers themselves are creating prepaid offerings that compete directly with their MVNOs. Cingular's GoPhone, for example, has grown substantially at the direct expense of vanilla Cingular resellers.

ES · 2 years ago

However competing purely on price is not a long term business model especially as the price of voice and text messaging continually declines. In addition the potential introduction of flat rate tariffs will put further pressure on these 'no-frills' MVNOs. Those that target specific niches such as ethnic groups, sports fans, elderly ...etc and can build a strong loyal customer base should have a better chance of survival in the long term.

tracfone · 5 months ago

I agree with you that low price is not a long term biz model, but the targeting of specific niches also proved unsuccessful. Hence ESPN mnvo and Disney mvno both failed. I do think however that the elderly niche could still do well. They mainly need simple to use phones without the frills.