Telephoning home while traveling abroad has always been expensive, to some extent in the past the costs involved in carrying international telecommunications traffic between countries have been justifiably higher than those involved in carrying a local call. However, as all frequent travelers know very well, careful preparation can easily reduce the cost of international calls by a factor of 10 or more.
The global telecommunications industry is on the verge of another massive shift in international calling patterns: the ethnic MVNO (mobile virtual network operator).
The consumer proposition provided by an ethnic MVNO is compelling, one benefits from the advantageous rates of calling cards from their armchair: all the convenience of mobile devices with the cost advantage of calling cards.
Ethnic MVNOs are effectively the amalgamation of a low-cost, no-frills national mobile virtual operator and a calling card operation. Typically, ethnic MVNOs ensure that international call quality is of a higher standard than what is typically offered by calling card providers; this, of course, justifies a slightly higher price per minute than that offered by existing landline calling card operators.
Andrew White of Piran Partners, the leading ethnic MVNO consultancy, predicts that “the market for ethnic MVNOs across Europe will be worth €6bn by 2012”. He compares well with the 2005 analysis by PWC (PriceWaterhouseCoopers, a leading accounting organisation) in which they estimate the UK calling card market to be £500m a year.
Click here to learn more about ethnic MVNOs. (c) Piran Partners LLP 2007.
