An MVNO is a wireless communications services provider that does not own the radio spectrum or wireless network infrastructure over which the MVNO provides services to its customers. An MVNO enters into a business agreement with a mobile network operator to obtain bulk access to network services at wholesale rates and then sets retail prices independently.
Speaking Tuesday at ZF Digital ’12, an event organized by Ziarul Financiar on October 16 and 17, Vodafone Romania chief executive officer Inaki Berroeta said Romania is a difficult market for MVNOs in terms of prices on the telecom market. He also said MVNOs penetrated telecom markets in other countries because prices are ten times higher than those in Romania.
Cosmote Romania CEO Stefanos Theocharopoulos said he totally agrees with Berroeta, while Orange Romania CEO Jean-François Fallacher said there is no place for MVNOs in Romania because of prices on the local telecom market.
Asked if 2G telecom networks will vanish away in the next five years, the heads of the three telecom operators said it is too soon to tell, as these networks help people communicate now and in the future, as well.
Theocharopoulos said 2G networks are similar to broadband services and Berroeta said five years from now 2G networks will still be used, but they might disappear in the next 145 years.
The three aforementioned executives declined, however, to estimate the evolution of the telecom market in the next five years.