The world’s first international MVNO, Truphone is now offering shared plans for business, allowing companies to offer a single pool of minutes and megabytes their employees can use in multiple counties. Read more »
As more MVNOs populate the mobile landscape, it’s becoming harder for one virtual operator to distinguish itself from another. GIV is separating itself from the pack by focusing on charitable giving. Read more »
ItsOn started out selling mobile plan customization tools to carriers as a cloud-based service. Now it’s becoming a carrier, using its own cloud service to show what the world can do with individually tailored voice and data plans. Read more »
MVNO Karma is trying to seed its social broadband mesh network throughout New York, so it’s starting with food trucks. Thirty mobile restaurants are now offering free Karma Wi-Fi. Read more »
FreedomPop is tapping into Sprint’s CDMA network to expand its footprint beyond Clearwire’s 80-city footprint. The new 3G service is just a prelude to FreedomPop’s planned support for LTE later this year. Read more »
Solavei will sell the device for steep price of $700, but unlocked versions of the new iPhone 5 will work with its SIM cards. Solavei resells T-Mo’s service, giving access to its nationwide HSPA+ network, but not LTE. Read more »
Mobile data MVNO FreedomPop is exploring the notion of a broadband piggy bank, which stores your unused data every month. It’s a concept ideal for the casual user of mobile broadband. Read more »
GoSmart Mobile will focus on the budget-conscious voice centric user. There are data plans, and one of them is even unlimited, but you won’t get access to T-Mobile’s full HSPA+ network speeds. Read more »
TracFone had another enormous growth year. Though it doesn’t have a network of its own, it is starting to grow close to national carrier size off of the success of Straight Talk and its other prepaid brands. Read more »
Can’t wait for that new BlackBerry Z10 in the U.S.? You can get one now, but it’ll cost you a grand. Read more »
The MVNO is turning broadband into a currency that can be shared or traded. The new funds will allow FreedomPop to continue tinkering with its plans in beta before a larger nationwide launch. Read more »
Truphone just got a £75M boost led by Abramovich’s investment arm Minden. The VoIP provider-turned-MVNO said it will use those funds to staff up and expand to continental Europe and Asia. Read more »
Google is launching yet another mysterious wireless experiment, this time using small cells at its HQ. Taking all of Google’s wireless projects together, a new kind of mobile architecture might be taking shape: the heterogenous network. Read more »
ACN’s wireless arm Flash may not have the most compelling rates today, but with a new deal with Devicescape it may be setting the stage for cheaper data plans in the future. Read more »
Instead of spending $100,000 on advertising that may or may not get new customers, Ting is spending that money to get people to switch to its cellular service. The company will pay your ETF to make the move. Read more »
Still waiting on that FreedomPop iPhone sleeve you ordered last summer? Well, you’ll have to wait at least a few more weeks. The devices are delayed at customs while the FCC goes through its certification process. Read more »
FreedomPop and textPlus have matching philosophies: Give a baseline service away for free and upsell additional megabytes and minutes. Later this quarter FreedomPop will incorporate textPlus’s IP messaging and VoIP services into its mobile broadband service. Read more »
Red Pocket is letting third-party voicemail provider YouMail at its customers. The move could be a precursor to virtual operators dumping their antiquated voicemail services. If customers are bringing their own phones and apps, why shouldn’t they bring their own voicemail? Read more »
It’s been a decade since MVNOs first challenged major wireless carriers, and now they account for more than 10 percent of mobile users. Telecom veteran Whitey Bluestein says the latest crop of MVNOs are poised to trigger a whole new round of disruption. Read more »
A world of difference separates the Sprint Dan Hesse took over on Dec. 17, 2007 and Sprint today. On his fifth anniversary as CEO, Hesse talks with GigaOM about how Sprint emerged from its dark days and how AT&T-Mo eventually helped shape Sprint’s identity. Read more »
If you travel overseas and want to maintain your mobile data connection, you’re either going to pay criminal roaming rates or endure tremendous hassles avoiding them. But a new breed of virtual operators like Voiamo are looking to create the first truly international plans. Read more »
The mobile virtual network operator plans to take the “M” out of MVNO. Using Clearwire’s WiMAX network, FreedomPop will start selling in January a residential broadband service with the same incentives as its mobile service, including 1 GB a month of free data. Read more »
Mexico’s biggest mobile brand launched in the U.S. but as an MVNO. Owned by América Móvil, Telcel América resembles its sister operator Straight Talk in that its plans include unlimited everything. In Telcel’s case they also include unlimited calling to mobile phones in Mexico. Read more »
Kajeet plans to offer some kind of 4G mobile broadband service for kids, though it was a bit stingy with the details. Chances are it will start selling dongles and hotspots directly to families, turning modems into virtual nannies. Read more »
Karma has arrived and its brought its concept of social bandwidth along for the ride. It’s betting consumers will be willing to share their 4G connections with strangers if given the proper incentive so it’s doling out free bandwidth in exchange for benevolence. Read more »
So you’re buying one of Apple’s newly unlocked iPhone 5s. Now you just need to figure out what carrier to take it to. If you want LTE your only current option is AT&T, but there are plenty of 3G options out there. Read more »
After a year and countless waves of beta trials, Republic Wireless is finally swinging open the doors for a commercial launch. New customers can now order its latest Motorola smartphone from its Website and sign up for its dirt-cheap $19 unlimited everything plans. Read more »
NetZero is giving each of its customers 1 GB of free bonus data each month. You can’t use that yourself, though. You have to give it to other NetZero customers in 200 MB increments, but there’s nothing to stop your friends from returning the favor. Read more »
After much hype and anticipation, MVNO FreedomPop is officially launched, offering 500 MB of free data to anyone willing to fork over a deposit for one of its 4G modems. The iPhone and iPod Touch sleeves aren’t available yet, but they’ll arrive in the coming weeks. Read more »
Mobile virtual network operators are popping up everywhere, but will they ever be large enough to threaten the large national carriers? Can they build a profitable business? Time will tell, but these companies have high hopes. Read more »
RadioShack joins the ranks of the mobile virtual network operators, partnering with Leap’s Cricket Communications to resell its prepaid smartphone and feature phone plans. The deal both expands Leap’s retail presence and allows RadioShack to sell service plans, not just handsets. Read more »
With shipments of the Galaxy S III beginning this week, mobile virtual network operator Ting has broken the curse of the budget operator: It not only has the latest iconic handset, it has the access to the latest network technology, LTE. One hurdle remains: the iPhone. Read more »
Radical virtual network operator Ting is at it again. The company with innovative cellular plans will let customers bring their own Sprint device to the service. But that’s short term; long term, Ting could add support for devices from other carriers in the U.S. too. Read more »
Karma not only encourages its 4G customers to share their connections with strangers, it rewards them with free bandwidth for doing so. The Dutch transplant’s social bandwidth vision now has a new convert. Venture capital firm Draper Fisher Jurvetson is participating its seed funding round. Read more »
Historically, U.S. consumers are addicted to subsidized smartphones that carry lengthy contracts, but sales growth of pre-paid, no contract phones has nearly doubled in the past year. Apple’s iPhone may eventually help this market too, but improved Android handsets sold by pre-paid providers are boosting sales. Read more »
Sprint isn’t holding anything back when it comes to supporting its MVNO partners. Ting will not only get access to a device Sprint started selling only last month, but it will gain immediate entry onto Sprint’s brand new LTE network — permissions other carriers would never grant. Read more »
Republic is still in beta, but it’s now a much bigger beta. The mobile virtual network operator has fine-tuned its proprietary hybrid-connection technology and Wi-Fi hotspot network with the launch of a new Motorola phone. So it’s opening up the gates to its long waiting list. Read more »
Free data, a 4G sleeve that wraps around the iPod touch, and a VoIP client — FreedomPop now has all of the pieces for a full-fledged mobile service though its technically just a data-only mobile virtual network operator. Read more »
When Republic Wireless launched last November it promised to deliver reams of data, voice, and SMS to its customers using a hybrid cellular-Wi-Fi network model. That Wi-Fi has to come from somewhere, and now we know the source: Devicescape. Read more »
FreedomPop, a mobile virtual network operator focusing solely on data, has reached an agreement with Sprint to resell its 3G and 4G services. The deal will allow FreedomPop to trade up on its agreement with Clearwire, exchanging its limited WiMAX footprint for Sprint’s eventual near-nationwide LTE coverage. Read more »
