From Star Power to Staying Power – How MVNOs Can Compete in a Crowded Market

Celebrity-backed and Brand MVNOs aren’t just a U.S. phenomenon. Alongside Mint Mobile (Ryan Reynolds) and SmartLess Mobile (Jason Bateman, Will Arnett & Sean Hayes), we’re seeing creators like YouTuber and blogger Luisito Comunica launch PilloFon in Mexico, Walmart Mexico dominate with BAIT (21.5M users), and football clubs such as Millwall FC bring fan-centric mobile plans to market in Europe. 

These launches bring star power, brand trust, and media attention. They’ve helped push the mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) model into the mainstream. 

But beneath the hype lies an even more interestingreality: the MVNO market is evolving fast. New technologies like 5G, cloud and eSIM, coupled with rising consumer expectations for seamless, digital-first experiences, are changing the game. At the same time, the market is more crowded than ever, with low-cost competitors fighting for share. 

The real story isn’t about celebrity endorsements; it’s about what it takes to turn launch momentum into long-term staying power. And that comes down to managing risk, controlling costs, differentiation, and delivering an experience that keeps customers loyal. 

The Growth Challenge – From Launch to Longevity 

MVNOs often launch with strong momentum but sustaining that growth is hard. Margins are thin, wholesale costs are unpredictable, and customer loyalty is fragile. Common challenges include: 

• Revenue leakage and fraud eating into already tight margins 

• Roaming costs that can turn opportunity into liability 

• Poor or inconsistent customer experience, leading to churn 

• Difficulty scaling digital services quickly in a competitive landscape 

To compete in the long-term, MVNOs need more than clever marketing—they need operational intelligence and control. 

From Hype to Staying Power: Building on Three Pillars 

While brand recognition and creative marketing can spark attention, they aren’t enough to guarantee longevity in a hyper-competitive MVNO market. Sustainable growth rests on strengthening four interconnected pillars: 

• Protect margins with intelligent risk management 

• Unlock growth with intelligent roaming 

• Keep customers loyal with QoE and compliance assurance 

• Provide customer centric support that ensures issues are resolved fast and with quality 

Together, these pillars provide MVNOs with the operational intelligence and resilience to grow beyond hype and compete at scale. 

Pillar 1: Protect Margins with Intelligent Risk Management 

Margins for MVNOs are notoriously thin. A single case of fraud, a billing error, or unchecked revenue leakage can erode profits before they even reach scale. 

These are not just “big operator” problems. MVNOs, because they depend on wholesale agreements and digital onboarding, are equally, if not more, exposed. 

That’s why real-time risk and fraud management is essential for MVNOs. Effective approaches combine AI-driven monitoring, anomaly detection, and controls such as Know Your Customer (KYC) and Anti-Money Laundering (AML) checks, as well as agent profiling. These capabilities allow operators to: 

• Detect fraud before it impacts customers 

• Reduce revenue leakage across billing and interconnect 

• Maintain profitability while supporting customer growth 

By embedding these safeguards into their operations, MVNOs can protect their thin margins and build a stronger foundation for growth and scale. 

Pillar 2: Unlock growth with intelligent roaming 

For MVNOs, roaming presents both opportunities and risks. On one hand, it can drive new revenue and loyalty. On the other hand, roaming wholesale costs can erode margins and create dissatisfaction when bills are unpredictable. 

At the same time, many customers still avoid using roaming altogether, fearing “bill shock.” These silent roamers turn off mobile data abroad, rely on Wi-Fi, or purchase local SIMs or travel eSIMs. 

In 2024, “silent roamers” were identified as a significant lost revenue opportunity for telcos worldwide.⁶ 

One proven way to address this is through predictable tariff models. 

Bundled daily or weekly roaming packages accounted for 55.4% of roaming tariff revenues in 2024.⁷

To turn roaming into a growth lever, MVNOs need strategies that strike a balance between cost control with customer experience. This often includes: 

• Optimizing wholesale costs to protect thin margins 

• Offering flexible, predictable bundles that reduce bill shock and encourage usage 

• Have network-based mechanisms that balance an optimal user experience and the cost to the business 

• Providing real-time usage alerts and QoE monitoring so customers feel confident staying connected abroad 

When these elements are in place, MVNOs can reduce the number of “silent roamers,” increase active usage, and strengthen overall margins. 

Pillar 3: Keep customers loyal with QoE and compliance assurance 

If price is what gets customers in the door, quality of experience (QoE) is what prevents them from leaving. Customers expect seamless digital experiences, including smooth onboarding, reliable data and consistent app performance, both domestically and internationally. 

For MVNOs, the challenge is that their brand reputation depends on wholesale network agreements they don’t fully control. A dropped call, slow data session or a failed digital transaction doesn’t get blamed on the host operator; it reflects poorly on the MVNO brand. 

That’s why effective QoE management is critical. Leading practices include: 

• Continuous service testing across apps, USSD, SIM Toolkit, and backend systems 

• Analytics to detect and resolve issues proactively before they affect customers 

• Visibility into wholesale partner performance to ensure service-level commitments are met 

By treating QoE as a core discipline, MVNOs can build customer trust, reduce churn, and unlock growth through stronger retention. 

Pillar 4: Provide customer centric support that ensures issues are resolved fast and with quality 

It’s a fact that customers are never happy to have to call support. This is an even bigger problem for MVNOs, many of which have built an online only customer engagement model. Therefore, having the right tools and visibility become a key element of a successful MVNO support model. Those tools must ensure issues can be identified and mitigated before they impact their customers. Then, when the customer reaches the MVNO support team, it’s critical to have 360-degree visibility into the customer journey leading to that call or ticket.  

Ensuring a fully operational, data-rich set of visibility tools enables MVNOs to provide the same level of support as their host MNOs. 

Confidence in a Crowded Market 

Star power and brand recognition may help an MVNO make a splash, but sustainable growth comes from the fundamentals: protecting revenue, controlling roaming costs, and delivering a seamless customer experience. Operators that embed these practices into their operations are better equipped to compete in crowded markets, earn customer loyalty, and scale with confidence. 

That’s where Mobileum comes in. Its cloud-ready, AI-powered Active Intelligence platform brings these capabilities together, helping MVNOs safeguard margins, accelerate roaming growth and assure service quality. With the right foundation in place, MVNOs can move beyond the initial launch buzz to achieve true staying power.