The Mind of The MVNO

Virgin Mobile is probably the best known and most successful MVNO at the moment. Unstrung has an excellent interview with Virgin Mobile UK CEO, Tom Alexander, that provides some great insight into their strategy. It made us think of some interesting scenarios for the evolution of mature wireless markets. The traditional players are best at building out networks but not great at marketing or figuring out what services people want. MVNOs like Virgin approach the market from the consumer perspective and identify what consumers want. In theory, it's a match made in heaven. But the big boys are trying so hard to be all things to all people that it will be a long time before they admit that they should focus on the networks and let someone else deal with the customers.