A local retailer might launch the first MVNO in Romania by yearend, as talks with Cosmote, Orange and Vodafone over infrastructure rental are in an advanced stage. This is what Marian Velicu, general manager of Veridian Systems, a company that provides the necessary technology for a MVNO and serves as a go-between in talks with operators, told ZF.
A MVNO is an operator that provides mobile voice and data services without building its own network of antennas and fiber optics, renting the infrastructure from already existing operators instead. RCS&RDS for instance entered Italy and Spain as a MVNO.
“The talks are in an advanced stage and the launch might happen this year,” said Marian Velicu. “Cosmote, Orange and Vodafone are more open than they used to be to a MVNO-type partnership,” he added, without providing further details.
Velicu left Vodafone this spring after a 15-year career with the operator and started his own business, Veridian Systems, in partnership with local operator Prime Telecom and Computaris, a UK company.
The initial cost to launch a MVNO is EUR200,000 at most, Velicu says, and a retailer entering this business would need no more than 25,000 customers to break even. Retailers might expand into the business fast because they already have a distribution network and a well-oiled promotional mechanism, Velicu thinks.
(English version by Loredana Fratila-Cristescu)