A MVNO is a company that does not have a license for the use of radio frequencies, but which provides communications services under its own brand, by using the network of a mobile operator.
According to a European Commission report, Romania and the Czech Republic are the only member states without a MVNO presence on their mobile communications market.
To identify the potential impact of MVNOs on competition, ANCOM has developed a first set of questions addressed to any interested party.
“The answers to this questionnaire will help clarify the role of virtual mobile operators and identify the effects of the presence of such a provider on the mobile communications market; one of the components tracked by the regulator is the evolution of competition on the entire mobile communications segment,” says an ANCOM press release.
The MVNO model’s popularity has grown in the last five years. There are around 400 planned or operational MVNOs worldwide. The states with the most virtual operators are the Netherlands (85), France (38), Denmark (15), Germany (71), the United Kingdom (41), Finland (10), Norway (15), Poland (10), Latvia (4), Hong Kong, Australia and the United States.
The questionnaire is available until August 8 and can be downloaded from ANCOM’s website: www.ancom.org.ro