Cellular provider

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As a mobile service provider (or Mobilfunkdiscounter or mobile discounter , English mobile virtual network operator , short MVNO ) is known in mobile communications such telecommunications service providers that offer relatively cheap calling minutes without equipment subsidies, while not have its own cellular network feature, but as a service provider to the network - Access the infrastructure of the major mobile network operators (MNO) by means of cooperation agreements. They do this by renting resources from the respective provider and selling contracts under their own name. The providers in Germany are Telekom , Vodafone and Telefónica and in Austria Magenta T-mobile , Drei and A1 .

Often these are subsidiaries of the actual network operator, e.g. Congstar , which is a subsidiary of Telekom .

Demarcation

In the early days of mobile communications resellers, the technical definition of a mobile communications network operator (also: telecommunications network operator ) prevailed , e.g. B. According to an Ovum study from 2000: a company that has its own GSM infrastructure such as a Mobile Switching Center (MSC) and possibly also a core network , i. H. via all infrastructure facilities of a mobile network operator with the exception of the radio network (the so-called air interface ). According to this definition, however, there are only a few mobile network operators worldwide; In Germany, there would be the active Mobile Bitstream Access MVNOs (MBA MVNOs) 1 & 1 Drillisch , Sipgate (also with satellite), Truephone and Lycamobile in 2018 . 1 & 1 Drillisch has a previously unused MVNO license. Spusu , a discount MVNO , is active in Austria .

An alternative to setting up a real mobile network operator is to use the services of a Mobile Virtual Network Enabler (MVNE), which actually (at least partially) invests in infrastructure and offers this to third companies for use without them having to invest themselves.

In the meantime, a definition based on the market approach has established itself, according to which there are two types of MVNO. The target or customer group provider (e.g. Yourfone ) and the discount provider who offers the cheapest possible tariffs with little effort (e.g. Aldi Talk ). In Germany, discount providers in particular have established themselves.

Most providers on the market avoided the investment in setting up their own Home Location Register (HLR), which would bring more flexibility with regard to the selection of guest networks and roaming partners, which is why the MVNO definition has meanwhile been extended to include mobile network providers. However, these resellers did not yet correspond to the definition of a discounter, since classic term contract business with device subsidies and various special services ( English added value ) was carried out. Well-known non-discount MVNOs in Germany are Mobilcom , Debitel , Drillisch Telcom GmbH , which emerged from the merger of Alphatel, Telco and VictorVox, or Quam, which is no longer active on the market .

history

The first MVNO was the British provider Virgin Mobile in 1999 , which is now also active in Canada , Australia and the USA and has over five million customers. The great success of this provider resulted in numerous other companies. In 2006 there are around 200 MVNOs worldwide. There are already numerous MVNOs in countries such as Great Britain, Denmark, Finland, Australia, the USA and the Netherlands. In Austria and France, the first providers began offering an offer in 2005.

As a result of a cooperation between O 2 and Tchibo as Tchibo Mobil , the market in Germany experienced an unexpected boom in 2004, which was successfully imitated with Aldi in 2005. After the start of sales of many mobile phone discounters at the end of 2005, discounters outnumbered the MVNOs as providers, although at the beginning of 2006, based on the providers' press releases, it can be assumed that the classic non-discount providers lead in terms of customer numbers. The mobile communications discounters are mostly lean start- ups (often subsidiaries of well-known companies) whose core competence lies outside the mobile communications industry, i.e. they primarily operate on the market side (with their own tariff structures) and want and need to reduce their technical complexity to a minimum .

Business model

In contrast to the classic mobile phone providers, sales are not carried out via specialized shops or branches or electronics stores , but via supermarkets or direct sales via the Internet and telephone . The fee schedule is deliberately kept simple (“ no frills ”), and companies rely on round-the-clock, one-price tariffs. There is only one uniform, low price per minute in the fixed network and all mobile networks at any time. After services such as roaming , international calls and data services, which were initially less used and compared by consumers , were generally not available or were considerably more expensive than with other tariffs, there are now discounters who also offer these services at uniform tariffs that are very cheap compared to the market. In some cases, the failure to offer additional features sprouted strange flowers: Until spring 2007, it was not possible to deactivate the mailbox at the German discounters in the E-Plus network .

As a rule, no basic fee is charged, there is no minimum turnover , and a minimum contract period is not entered into. Some providers offer low usage fees or special termination rights for low sales. In addition, no subsidies are charged for the purchase of a new mobile phone , which is why the customer needs a SIM-lock-free mobile phone. For this purpose, some providers have already entered into cooperations with electronics stores or mail order companies and offer suitable SIM-lock-free mobile phones for this purpose.

Most postpaid offers are only invoiced electronically and free of charge. A printed invoice can be sent by post at an additional cost.

background

The mobile communications sector is a constantly growing and also lucrative market . But since there are only a few companies that have their own networks, new business models are being sought that allow other companies to participate in the market. In view of the high level of market saturation already achieved at the end of 2004, growth rates can mainly be achieved through cutthroat competition. However, cheaper tariff models would jeopardize sales in the existing customer base, which explains the establishment of the no-frills brands as 100 percent subsidiaries of the existing operators.

Another growth potential arises in the development of previously inaccessible customer groups. With fully purchased resale products, successful brand leaders can use their existing customer relationships to address customers who have not previously used mobile phones. Comparable to call-by-call telephony providers and Internet access providers, there are now ready-made concepts that reduce the technical effort required to provide a new mobile phone brand to a minimum. The market entry resistance to be overcome consists in the positioning on the market and the sale of the product and no longer in the technical processing (network operation, logistics , billing), since this is provided by the actual network operator (or an intermediary mobile phone provider) as a preliminary service on behalf of the provider is provided.

The discount providers act as intermediaries with their tariffs, buy call minutes from the network owners and then pass them on to their own customers - with a small premium, of course. Cell phone discounters are nothing more than middlemen. They are therefore also referred to as Mobile Virtual Network Operators (MVNO), i.e. virtual mobile network operators.

In countries like Denmark and Sweden , up to 20 percent of cell phone owners made calls at discount rates in 2005.

See also

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Henning Gajek: BREKO advocates MVNO and service provider for 5G . ( teltarif.de [accessed on July 26, 2018]).
  2. ^ Henning Gajek: Analyst: Fourth network in Germany? No thanks! ( teltarif.de [accessed on August 11, 2018]).
  3. ↑ http://www.prepaid-wiki.de/index.php?title=ALPHATEL
  4. ↑ The History of MVNO , Yozzo.com, August 4, 2016
  5. ↑ Geiz ist geil finds its way into mobile communications ( memento from July 3, 2005 in the Internet Archive ), Heise Newsticker , June 29, 2005
  6. ↑ Tchibo Mobil celebrates its 15th birthday , teltarif.de , October 6, 2019
  7. ↑ Deactivate mailbox and SMS notifications , Teltarif Forum, June 16, 2007