A little while ago, friend of NWIDA – and MVNO expert Jon Horovitz wrote an article called When Do We Stop calling Tracfone, Metro, Boost, etc. MVNOs and Start Referring to them as Brands?
It’s about carriers buying MVNOs but keeping their name (see Metro, Cricket, Ultra, Simple, Total, etc etc etc.)
See, the main difference between a carrier and MVNO used to be easily defined:
1) MVNOs couldn’t roam, so they only worked on the carrier network
2) They didn’t offer as much data. Data is the only variable cost for an MVNO – so it never really worked when any of them tried to offer “Unlimited” data. As the CEO of an MVNO once told me “Unlimited does mean unreasonable.”
3) MVNOs didn’t get the latest phones. Typically, they were one year/cycle behind. iPhone 11 comes out? MVNOs start offering the X.
But today, Verizon announced that Visible customers would be able to get the iPhone 16! And the 16 plus, and the Pro and the Pro Max! AND the Watch Ultra 2 and Series 10.
Remember when Ultra was (recently) purchased by T-Mobile? They instantly got roaming.
Now, many of these benefits are good for the customer – and there are some benefits that carrier owned “MVNOs” now offer the dealers that they didn’t / couldn’t before.
But let’s be real. Cricket isn’t an MVNO anymore. Metro isn’t an MVNO. Neither are Ultra, Simple, Total, Mint, Visible, etc. They’re BRANDS.
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