CTExcel, the international MVNO business operated by Chinese communications giant China Telecom, has unveiled plans to launch its fourth virtual operation – in Australia – this year. Speaking at last week’s MVNOs World Congress in Amsterdam, China Telecom global product manager (mobile business), Yan Shun Li, told attendees that the launch was imminent. The company’s first international MVNO CTExcel UK went live in May 2012, with a French operation following in October 2013. More recently, in May 2015 the company launchedCTExcel US in conjunction with Singapore-based mobile virtual network aggregator (MVNA) Plintron.

UK-based MVNO giant Lycamobile Group now boasts more than 15 million subscribers worldwide, CEO Chris Tooley informed the audience at the conference. Speaking during a panel-based discussion on the development of a global brand, Mr Tooley observed that one of the key strands of Lycamobile’s international strategy is ‘being global, but operating on a local basis’. With the group’s MVNO operations now spanning 20 countries, Tooley confirmed that the company’s management is ‘still centralised’, but admitted that it is ‘reviewing that model at the moment’. Separately, he noted that Lycamobile’s US subscriber base is now in the region of 750,000 and is expected to pass the one million user mark in 3Q16 and reach two million by the end of 2017. The US service launched in March 2013 over the T-Mobile US network.

Elsewhere, Habib Ben Lallahom, Tunisie Telecom’s executive director of wholesale MVNO, says thatLycamobile Tunisia– which launched over TT’s network on 1 October 2015 – already accounts for an impressive 40% of the country’s inbound international traffic. Previously, in its most recent monthly report, domestic regulator the National Telecommunications Authority (Instance Nationale des Telecommunications,INT) confirmed that Lycamobile registered the highest volume of international traffic of all Tunisia’s mobile providers, adding that ‘almost 100%’ of international inbound traffic comes from countries where Lycamobile is operational. The MVNO claimed 90,705 customers at end-February.

Mikkel Vinter, CEO of Virgin Mobile Middle East and Africa (VMMEA), says that the group now accounts for 2.5 million MVNO users across its five live markets. Mr Vinter observed that the group’s strong progress is down to its dual-brand approach: the Virgin Mobile moniker is targeted at a young audience, and has a retail presence in upmarket shopping malls across the company’s footprint, while the legacy FRiENDi brand is aimed at foreign workers who have family abroad. As such, FRiENDi sales representatives are more likely to target labour camps where there are ‘no marble floors’ in sight. Going forward, although he declined to identify his target markets by name, Vinter noted that there is more MVNO activity ‘in the pipeline’, and industry observers can expect to see ‘a few more flags on the map’ in 2017. The company hopes to serve ten million subscribers within five years.

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