According to the detailed analysis of the main trends in European MVNE and PaaS market, the company J'son & Partners Consulting presents brief results of the study in terms of prospects of this segment in Russia.

 

While the growth rate of income from the traditional communication services (telephony and messaging) are reducing, operators and other participants in the mobile market explore new niches. One of the models for development of emerging and promising markets, including Internet of things (IoT) is integration of MVNE (intermediaries between mobile operators and virtual mobile operators (MVNO)) in this business process. As providers of specialized ICT services, MVNE, as a rule, are more competent in peculiarities of industry-specific applications connected to the network of technical devices. In addition, they often serve a wholesale customer for mobile operators who are more interested in interaction with MVNEs as aggregators of several small MVNOs, than with virtual operators.

 

In the research from J'son & Partners Consulting you will find a detailed analysis of the condition of the European MVNE market. The results of this study can work as a basis for the key players in the Russian mobile communications market during elaboration of the development strategy.

 

MVNE/PaaS market in Europe

 

The first MVNE appeared in Europe more than 10 years ago, and as the MVNO market was growing, the number of providers was also rapidly increasing. By the end of the 1st quarter of 2016, there were several dozen specialized MVNE in the region. The top three countries with the largest number of MVNEs are the UK, Netherlands and Germany:

 

In fact, MVNEs are intermediaries between virtual operators (MVNOs) and mobile network operators (MNOs). A typical MVNE business model involves allocation and leasing of the IT-infrastructure (technological platform) to an MVNO; this infrastructure should be integrated with the existing virtual operators’ IT-resources. In many cases, the MVNE role is played by the mobile operators themselves. These mobile operators not only sell the wholesale traffic to MVNOs, they lease their technology platform to MVNOs. In frames of other options MVNOs do not interact with MNOs and buy the traffic and managed services from MVNEs. Some MVNEs and service providers of PaaS/SaaS/IaaS (Artilium, Elephant Talk, etc.) provide services based on their own platforms to mobile operators and other large MVNEs which are their main customers.

 

Major MVNE market participants are represented both by specialized MVNEs (Transatel, Teleena, Effortel, etc.), and by big international vendors (Amdocs, Oracle, Huawei, Ericsson, etc.), system integrators (Accenture, Wipro, etc.) and niche players (Nomadic, Tecore, BICS, etc.). The role of the global vendors are mostly limited to providing individual solutions for MVNEs or participating in developing and launching of MVNEs for mobile operators or big Full MVNO projects.

 

The largest MVNEs are Teleena (more than 1.5 million SIM cards in use), Vodafone Enabler Spain (over 1 million subscribers), Transatel (over 80 MVNOs with a total subscriber base of more than 700 thousand). Among public companies Artilium and Elephant Talk have been named and analyzed.

 

The Russian MVNE/PaaS market prospects

 

In Russia, an interest in MVNE/PaaS business models has been shown by the major mobile operators (MTS, MegaFon, Tele2) and by a number of other companies, the most successful of which is a company called MTT.

 

MTT has become one of the first companies in Russia which started implementing MVNE. By the beginning of 2015 the operator had built all the necessary infrastructure and business processes to launch MVNE. Among MTT’s potential clients there are large corporate customers and the operators of the "Big four". The first projects according to the MVNE model will be implemented in the first half of 2016. Earlier, in 2014, MTT launched in Tajikistan a commercial MVNO project called Aiva Mobile.

 

In general, the Russian MVNE/PaaS market prospects will be associated with the development of the MVNO market and the IoT segment, which is associated with high expectations by most market participants for mobile communications (MNO/MVNE/MVNO), providers of PaaS/SaaS/IaaS, vendors, system integrators, etc.

 

According to J'son & Partners Consulting, the MVNE and PaaS models are perspective for all the ICT market participants, especially those who seek to enter the market of Internet of things and have no special competence in this field, including mobile operators and MVNOs.

 

Comments from the market participants

 

– What are the most promising business models for MVNO?

 

– First of all, this model is the one that gives the best quality of communication. For this purpose, we use power of several operators instead of only one. The clients are provided with automatic selection of the best channel of communication at a given point and time.

 

Second, in the context of globalization, those customers who go abroad want to get the same package of services as in their home country, and at an acceptable cost. For our part, we have developed a   technology that can be easily implemented by any virtual operator for its subscribers. Thus, such MVNOs can compete with large operators, which offer quite expensive roaming services. In fact, we act as a  platform supplier and offer this platform as a service (PaaS).

 

 

Detailed results of the research presented in the full version of the report

“European experience and the Russian MVNE and PaaS market development prospects”

 

Contents

Introduction

Summary

1. MVNE/PaaS market development in the developed countries of Europe

1.1. Geographical structure of the market and the condition of the MVNE market in different European countries

1.2. Business models and interactions of MVNE/MVNA and PaaS providers with mobile operators

1.3. Key players

1.3.1. Transatel

1.3.2. Cubic Telecom

1.3.3. Teleena

1.3.4. ComSys

1.3.5. Hue

1.3.6. Others

1.3.7. Specialized and niche players

1.3.8. Global vendors

1.4. Main trends and prospects

2. MVNE and PaaS market development prospects in Russia

2.1. Main participants of the market

2.1.1. МТТ

2.1.2. МТS

2.1.3. Peter-Service

2.1.4. CBOSS

2.1.5. ComfortWay

2.2. Prospects

3. Conclusions and recommendations

 

List of pics

Pic. 1. Typical MVNE business model on the example of the Veridian platform

Pic. 2. Basic schemes of interaction between MNO, MVNO and MVNE

Pic. 3. MVNE and MVNA business models on the example of the company Transatel

Pic. 4. Main participants of the MVNE market in the world

Pic. 5. Examples of differentiation of MVNE solutions

Pic. 6. Structure of the MVNE platform of the company Teleena

Pic. 7. Structure of the MVNE platform of the company Comsys

Pic. 8. Structure of the MVNE platform of the company ASPIDER       

Pic. 9. Scheme of interaction of the MVNE platform of the company Nomadic with MNO

Pic. 10. Structure of the MVNE platform of the company XIUS

Pic. 11. Structure of the MVNE solution of the company Alcatel-Lucent

Pic. 12. Example of calculation of income for MVNO from MVNE during 1 year

Pic. 13. Structure of the MVNE platform of the company «Peter-Service»

Pic. 14. Algorithm of the platform for remotely managing SIM-cards

 

List of tables

Table. 1. The number of MVNAs and MVNEs and condition of the market in the countries of Western Europe, 1Q 2016

Table. 2. The number of MVNOs under control of MVNE in Europe, 1st quarter of 2016

Table. 3. Profile of the company Transatel Solutions

Table. 4. Profile of the company Cubic Telecom

Table. 5. Basic elements of the MVNE platform Teleena and their functionality

Table. 6. Profile of the company Teleena

Table. 7. Profile of the company ComSys

Table. 8. Profile of the company Hue

Table. 9. Financial results of the Artilium group for the financial year ended 30.06.2015, in thousand EUR

Table. 10. Revenue and non-current assets of the Artilium group for the year ended 30.06.2015, by country

Table. 11. Consolidated income and loss statement of the Artilium group for the year ended 30.06.2015, in thousand EUR

Table. 12. Consolidated comprehensive income/loss statement of the Artilium group for the year ended 30.06.2015, in thousand EUR

Table. 13. Consolidated income statement of Elephant Talk in 2014-2015

Table. 14. Distribution of obligations, costs, and gross profit between ComfortWay and MTNO

Table. 15. The number of clients, income/expense and profit ComfortWay, 2015-2019

 

The newsletter prepared by J'son & Partners Consulting. We work hard to provide factual and prognostic data that fully reflect the situation and which are available at the time of the release. J'son & Partners Consulting reserves the right to revise the data after publication of new official information from particular players.

 

 

According to the detailed analysis of the main trends in European MVNE and PaaS market, the company J'son & Partners Consulting presents brief results of the study in terms of prospects of this segment in Russia.