Thursday 4 March 2010

What Opportunities does LTE Provide for MVNO's?

In the Verizon Wireless conference webcasts one of the things talked about was how applications and devices can be sold either going through the operator's channels, but that companies could also use the MVNO model (VZW called it the wholesale model) to sell devices directly to the consumer.

VZW has set up nPhase with Qualcomm. As described on their website: nPhase is an enabler of Machine to Machine (M2M) and Smart Services solutions across industries including energy, healthcare, consumer products, telematics, heavy off-road machinery, industrial equipment, and commercial products. We enable our clients with complete end-to-end solutions that wirelessly connect their products and business assets to deliver ground breaking possibilities for new business models, differentiation and growth.

What possibilities does this bring to the table for MVNOs? Should MVNOs be looking at personalised healthcare services or smart metering, since they have the experience of working with the operators to provide these sorts of services?
Wireless Logic the MVNO based in the UK is already looking at M2M and sees embedded connectivity as a strong prospect. The US based MVNO Wyless is also working with healthcare providers to develop niche healthcare services serch as remote monitoring applications.

MVNOs seem best placed to provide value added services for specific vertical markets. It will be interesting to see what other innovative ideas MVNOs can come up with and what the impact of having LTE and a bigger pipe will be.

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