It is never an easy question to answer. Wholesale contracts are complex documents covering everything from commercial terms and service levels to customer support, billing arrangements, and regulatory obligations. There is rarely one clause that outweighs all others.

However, if I were compiling a list of the five most important clauses then one covering network and technology parity would undoubtedly be near the top.

Technology parity ensures that an MVNO can access the same network developments, upgrades, and future technologies as the host mobile network operator (MNO). In practical terms, it prevents MVNOs from becoming second-class providers operating on outdated technology while their host networks move ahead.

More importantly, parity provides a foundation for fair competition. It allows MVNOs to build propositions, customer experiences, and brands based on consistent service quality rather than constantly trying to explain why their offering lacks capabilities available elsewhere in the market.

As the industry enters a new phase of innovation, that protection has never been more important.

The growing momentum behind direct to device satellite communications (D2D) demonstrates exactly why technology parity matters.

Right now, we are seeing operators investing heavily in technologies designed to extend connectivity beyond the reach of traditional mobile networks. Direct satellite connectivity promises to deliver mobile services in remote locations, rural communities, vast landscapes and seas.

That’s why telecommunications authorities around the world are evaluating how satellite and terrestrial networks can coexist while protecting existing spectrum users and ensuring public safety.

In the UK, Ofcom has taken significant steps by authorising the use of mobile spectrum to support direct satellite-to-mobile services and also outlining the conditions under which those services can operate. Companies deploying satellite connectivity will be expected to implement measures that protect airspace operations and other critical services while delivering enhanced coverage to consumers.

Initially, many of these offerings are expected to focus on emergency communications and lightweight data services in locations where conventional mobile coverage is unavailable. For rural communities and travellers, that could represent a major step forward in connectivity.

Regulation creates opportunity

These developments highlight an important reality in telecommunications. Technology companies may drive innovation, but regulators remain the gatekeepers.

No matter how advanced a technology may be, it cannot achieve commercial scale until regulatory frameworks are established and market access becomes possible. Once those frameworks are in place, however, the flood gates open and we should expect the pace of adoption to accelerate remarkably quickly.

We are already seeing evidence of this across multiple markets.

In the United States, T-Mobile has been actively developing its satellite connectivity proposition. In the UK, Virgin Media O2 has begun promoting its satellite-enabled services following its agreement with Starlink. Vodafone has also announced customer trials scheduled for 2026 through its partnership with AST SpaceMobile.

Meanwhile, Deutsche Telekom has outlined ambitions to move beyond basic emergency connectivity and launch fully integrated data, voice, and video services via satellite by 2028.

Taken together, these announcements demonstrate not only the speed of innovation but also the scale of transformation that could occur over the next few years as regulators make their moves. 

Why MVNOs must pay attention

For MVNOs, the key takeaway is simple. The race has already started, and you need to be ready for when regulators fire the starting pistol in your jurisdiction. 

Not only that, as new technologies become commercially available, customers will increasingly expect access to them. As we know, connectivity innovations that initially appear niche often become mainstream far more quickly than anticipated – look at eSIM.

The challenge for MVNOs is to ensure the terms of their wholesale agreements support their next move.

If technology parity is already in place, gaining access to new capabilities can be relatively straightforward. If they are not, MVNOs may find themselves negotiating from the back foot and may need to secure entirely new agreements with their host networks or explore direct commercial arrangements with satellite providers. 

Negotiating direct, is of course an option, but as is often the case it’s often more time-consuming, more complex, and more expensive.

In many cases, the most practical first step is to engage with your host operator and explore opportunities for access. Wholesale partnerships are built on commercial relationships, and discussions are always worth having.

However, MVNOs should recognise that satellite-enabled services are likely to be viewed as premium products. Host operators and technology partners will be looking carefully at distribution strategies and selecting partners capable of bringing meaningful value to the market and recovering the investment they make.

Access alone is unlikely to be enough. MVNOs will need a compelling proposition and a clear plan for commercial success.

Understanding what parity really means

One common misconception is that technology parity guarantees identical commercial treatment. Never lose sight of the fact that parity and pricing are two very different things.

A technology parity clause is typically designed to ensure that an MVNO can access the same products, services, and technological advancements available to the host operator’s own customers. It does not guarantee is identical wholesale pricing.

In my experience, even where parity exists, there will almost always be separate commercial negotiations around wholesale costs. The introduction of new technologies often creates additional investment requirements, and operators will naturally seek to recover those costs too.

As a result, MVNOs must carefully assess the economics of any new service. Can the technology solve a meaningful customer problem? Does it create sufficient value to justify a premium price? Will customers be willing to pay for it? Can the proposition generate sustainable margins?

These questions remain just as important as securing access itself. And you must answer them for your business and be ready to give the answers to your host too.

Building contracts that grow with you

Perhaps the most important lesson here for MVNOs, is the need to think beyond today’s requirements. Many wholesale agreements run for five to ten years. In an industry evolving as quickly as telecommunications, five years can feel like an eternity. Technologies that seem experimental today, like satellite, will become standard. 

That is why wholesale agreements should not simply address current needs. They should provide protection against future uncertainty. Whether the issue is satellite connectivity, network upgrades, pricing changes, or entirely new categories of digital services, the principle remains the same. MVNOs must ensure they can remain relevant and competitive throughout the life of the agreement.

That’s why I continue to beat the drum on market parity, because those that fail to plan a contract around future developments risk being left behind.

That’s why we’re here to help. We can deliver masterclasses so you know how to negotiate effectively, or we can step into negotations for you and get the clauses you need to future proof your strategy. Talk to us today. 

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The global MVNO market is currently worth around $95 billion and by 2035 it’s expected to grow to well over $190 billion. Staggering as these numbers are, I don’t believe they are hype.  

Growth is coming from across the world in both emerging and mature markets. 

In Latin America, Africa, Southeast Asia digital-first propositions enabled by ‘MVNO-in-a-box’ and SaaS solutions are creating opportunities for new entrants in emerging markets. 

Growth in the mature markets of Europe and North America is coming from enterprise IoT, targeted consumer propositions, and the fascinating trend of using mobile not just as a revenue stream, but as a critical part of the strategy to deepen loyalty with existing customers.

Just last month, Lidl and 1GLOBAL announced a partnership that will see the supermarket chain become an MVNO in up to 30 markets, embedding eSIM plans directly into its Lidl Plus loyalty app, which already has over 100 million users.

Then there’s Bait, Walmart’s MVNO in Mexico, proving the power of a focused strategy. It ended 2025 with 26.4 million active users, up 44% in a single year, adding 8.1 million subscribers, net.  

Bait has achieved this incredible growth by deeply integrating mobile into the Walmart retail experience. It’s a simple and effective proposition giving people free data with in-store purchases, supported by activation across 3,000 outlets. 

The results speak for themselves. Bait customers spend two and a half times more in Walmex stores than a non-customer. That statistic alone tells you everything about why retail and mobile are such powerful allies and how mobile has become a critical element to numerous brands’ growth strategies.

Neo-bank MVNOs are also gaining serious momentum. Revolut, Lendable, N26, Monzo, to name a few, are weaving mobile into their financial services ecosystems. 

And in the community space we have seen everyone from influencers to US presidents, sports clubs to religious groups embrace the MVNO model.

But the conference is not just a celebration of growth. It is a place where we interrogate the hard questions too, and this year there will be three critical themes. 

THEME ONE: THE SATELLITE QUESTION – OPPORTUNITY, RISK, OR INDUSTRY EARTHQUAKE?

Let me start with the one I think carries the biggest long-term strategic implications: Satellite.

In March, at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, SpaceX took to the stage to unveil Starlink Mobile, its direct-to-device service. This followed T-Mobile’s launch of T-Satellite, in partnership with SpaceX, in 20025 with plans for next generation ‘V2 satellites’, targeting 5G-class speeds from orbit, in 2027.

Amazon is also getting in on the action with Amazon Leo, a low-Earth orbit broadband constellation targeting over 3,200 satellites. It’s currently working on partnerships to monetise this new asset. I don’t think Amazon will dabble in this market. It will dive in hard with every intention of disrupting the market by building a global network, just as they’ve done in retail, cloud computing, entertainment and logistics. 

So, at conference we’ll ask at what point does satellite connectivity starts to replace the mobile infrastructure of today. 

We have already seen WIFI take share of customers use in the home. Will we see satellite connectivity also taking traffic away from traditional networks, and if so, will they do it in partnership with operators or in competition with them?

This won’t happen today but it’s a question we need to be ready to answer. Experts agree that physics and economics make satellite a complementary technology to terrestrial networks at present, but V2 satellites promise one hundred times more data density than V1 and that is a whole new ball game. 

If satellite becomes an alternative provider, then the asset that operators have spent decades and tens of billions building and that MVNOs rely on could become redundant, or at least less crucial in some areas.

This brings risk and opportunity. On the risk side, Starlink’s current T-Mobile partnership explicitly excludes MVNO access, and we may well see this approach adopted more broadly.

If satellite capabilities are locked within operator brands, then MVNOs could find themselves excluded from a major new technology wave, exactly the scenario we at Graystone Strategy advise clients to contract against. 

Parity of access clauses in your wholesale agreement are not a nice-to-have; in a world of rapidly evolving technologies, they are protection against a very real threat.

On the opportunity side, this trend has the potential to significantly re-write how consumers access mobile telecoms. We could even see a world where every telecoms brand is an MVNO accessing connectivity from national radio network and satellite combined.

That type of shift needs innovative thinkers that can rip up the rule book and start again. That type of thinking is present at MVNOs World. As a community we are world champions at challenging the status quo and doing things differently.

THEME TWO: CONSOLIDATION – THE DOUBLE-EDGED SWORD

Europe’s mobile network operators have been pushing hard for permission to consolidate. They are being successful and generally, that’s bad for MVNOs as fewer operators means fewer potential wholesale partners. And less competition in wholesale almost always means higher prices and less favourable terms. 

But – and this is the critical counter-narrative – consolidation historically comes with regulatory remedies which are an important catalyst for MVNO growth. We have seen a range of remedy models deployed in the UK, Ireland, Austria and even the Channel Islands, all seeking to drive consumer competition through MVNOs.

We’ve also seen a more radical solution deployed in Mexico. The Red Compartida (Altan Redes) was effectively born from the need to inject wholesale competition into a market dominated by Telcel. Today, 83 MVNOs use that network, and it’s worth noting Bait built its entire 26-million subscriber empire on it. 

We’ll discuss in detail how MVNOs can manage these changing dynamics and refine strategy to ensure opportunity is maximised and the risks are minimised. 

THEME THREE: CHANGING CONSUMER HABITS – THE MARGIN SQUEEZE AND THE PROPOSITION OPPORTUNITY

The third theme is about how consumers are using their phones, from the changing use cases, technologies and attitudes to mobile, to the economics of mobile data.

Let me start with the economics. Data usage is going up. In 2025, 93% of operators globally saw growth in data usage per subscription. 

But here is the problem, ARPU is not keeping pace. Across all markets, we are seeing a growing gap between the cost of serving that data and the revenue earned from doing so. 

The result is a margin squeeze that is hitting MVNOs particularly hard, because MVNOs have the added layer of a wholesale cost they cannot fully control.

There are broadly two responses to the margin squeeze. The first is using tech to reduce operational costs. AI has a huge role to play here supporting a less costs more margin approach. 

The second, and in my view the more interesting, is the race to build propositions that escape the commodity trap entirely and grow value.

Which brings me to the second dimension of changing consumer habits, the social and cultural shift that is creating entirely new proposition opportunities for this industry.

Across the world, parents, governments and regulators are waking up to the impact of uncontrolled social media access by children. Australia has legislated a ban on social media for under-16s, and many more countries are putting this issue under the microscope.

This is not just a policy trend. It is a consumer behaviour shift. More parents are actively looking for technology solutions that keep their children connected AND protected.

They want their kids to have a phone, but not a portal to unregulated content. They want to give independence while maintaining visibility, and they are willing to pay a premium for that reassurance.

Spacetalk, an Australian MVNO and technology company, has created a proposition purpose-built for families offering child tracking, check ins and full parental content controls. 

This allows kids freedom, but within parental guardrails, making parenting in this digital age just a little less stressful. Spacetalk is pursuing white label deals on its technology, already securing one with Vodafone Australia. For pioneering MVNOs, there’s a huge opportunity to seize on this openness to partnership. Done well it has the potential to overcome the ARPU squeeze. 

The trick MVNOs need to take from this is not to compete on price for the same generic data plan but identify a segment with a specific pain point and build a proposition so differentiated that price becomes secondary to value. 

It’s also a reminder that cost cutting isn’t always the way to go and building customer relationships is. 

So, there you have it three themes for congress, and as we’ll no doubt discuss, endless possibilities for success. 

If you would like to discuss how you adapt your MVNO’s strategy to address one or more of these themes then drop us a line, we’re happy to meet for a coffee during the conference, or a video call afterwards. 

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If you’re at the Congress and fancy a coffee or a beer, drop us a line.

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It’s a polarising subject so the analysis that follows takes a view of how a celebrity or business person can use existing brand value and assets to access the world of mobile.For those reasons it’s the MVNO we didn’t expect, but makes perfect sense.

If you look around the world, celebrities, YouTube stars, football clubs are all moving into the MVNO space. It makes better commercial sense for those people who have become a brand in their own right because launching a beauty range or a vodka relies on repeat purchase. Mobile contracts provide a recurring revenue. 

Most recently, Jason Bateman, Sean Hayes, and Will Arnett of the Smartless Podcast announced their MVNO, to significantly less fanfare. They’ve followed in the footsteps of Ryan Reynolds who was involved in Mint. Mint was acquired by T-Mobile for $1.35bn in May 2024. This alone shows you the draw to getting involved in the industry. 

From a business perspective, when I was assessing potential MVNO partners in my wholesale days at Vodafone, we always looked for organisations that had customer access, a well-known brand, distribution and points of differentiation.

Taking that into account, celebrities score well and so would a businessman with a big following. In this case, Trump has lots of assets to work with. The Truth social platform provides a captive audience and his other businesses provide intel on customer behaviour. 

It’s also worth looking at the bigger picture. The path of celebrities using their brand to create a product is well trodden. There have been many celebrity fragrances, alcoholic and energy drinks, clothing labels and so on. All of them can be classed as brand licencing deals.

As I understand it, licencing for Trump Corp has done well – $10m from bibles, watches, and sneakers (that’s trainers to us Europeans) and bigger money (some $30m) through hotel licencing in Dubai, India and Vietnam. Mobile isn’t such a big leap in this context. 

The appeal of mobile for any brand or celebrity is that if it is done correctly it generates a monthly recurring revenue, and that will likely drive more long term value than trainers or perfume.

I suspect some of the appetite has come from watching Mint’s success. Although Mint wasn’t specifically focused on fans of Ryan Reynolds, his involvement certainly drove up awareness and added some star quality. When Mint sold to T-Mobile, Ryan Reynolds allegedly made $300m. That alone gives a celebrity 300m reasons to get involved in MVNOs. 

More broadly, if we look at market conditions in the US, there is substantial growth expected in MVNO. It’s forecasted to take another 5% US market share by 2029. The total market is expected to reach 459m subscribers by 2029, so this helps you understand the scale and growth potential of even 1% let alone 5%. 

But this isn’t just a US trend. There have been pushes into mobile by social media influencers, football clubs and many more brands across Europe and beyond. I bet that we will see more online personality brands join the telecoms market soon, for exactly the reasons outlined above. 

However, nothing is guaranteed. Having a brand is a big help in terms of driving awareness and reaching a captive audience. But your offer still needs to be materially different to anything else. Otherwise it won’t get traction. 

If you solve a need that other carriers can’t or deliver an enhanced brand experience (as Revolut and countless fintechs have recently) then you will be on the upward curve. Barça Mobile is a great example of a brand that’s intent on giving fans access to exclusives and experiences they can’t get on another network.

Not all the details about what you’ll get on 47 Mobile are public, or even clear – the claim of an all American smartphone has prompted queries in the press. But telemedicine and concierge type services have been mentioned. With so many businesses in its stable, Trump Corp will be able to enhance the offer in lots of surprising ways. 

I think the real story is who will be next? Who will be motivated to seize on the opportunity of MVNO? It might be someone you and I have never heard of, but your kids have. Leads me to close by saying Watch Out World – more wealthy baseball-cap-wearing giants could be coming our way. 

If you’d like to make a ‘mint’ from your MVNO idea then Graystone Strategy can help you assess the potential and develop the strategy to make it s success.

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