As a mobile network operator, you already know MVNOs matter. Seeing reports on how MVNOs will soon comprise a third of the entire UK mobile market, with a rise from today's 22.3 million to over 30 million by the end of 2031 and with revenue doubling from this year’s £2.4bn to £4.5bn, isn’t going to be new news to you.
By the same token, the recent survey by PC Magazine in the US that lists MVNOs Mint, Google Fi, Metro by T-Mobile and US Mobile (Light Speed) as fast as the main overall winner, T-Mobile, but also as cheaper—and, in all cases, given a higher satisfaction index by all those consumers surveyed than the winning primary networks—also won’t alter any conception you have about the commercial value of MVNOs to MNOs.
It also seems that 4.6% of subscribers in the region's top five mobile markets (Germany, France, the UK, Italy and Spain) were MVNO customers in 2023, with the UK reporting the largest MVNO market share at 18.7%.
MVNOs are fast becoming strategic partners that make a difference to your bottom line.
What you might have missed is that when it comes to supporting your MVNOs, wholesale flexibility matters more than ever.
Winning MVNO partnerships that deliver lasting value needs some thought
Why: because their place in the mobile market is changing. Once viewed primarily as a way for MNOs to essentially easily monetise excess network capacity, virtual operators are an increasingly important source of wholesale revenue, and an increasingly significant force in the competitive mobile market.
So, MVNOs represent a substantial and growing wholesale opportunity, but for MNOs trying to grow this part of their business that creates both an opportunity and a challenge. You can’t win hearts, minds and long-term partnerships now just by providing network access alone.
The reality is, as we enter the latter half of the 2020s, to attract and retain MVNO customers, operators need to give them the flexibility to build differentiated propositions, respond quickly and nimbly to changing market conditions, and deliver the level of experience modern digital native consumers expect.
The TIM example. Or is it a warning?
The recent negative experience of Telecom Italia (TIM) provides a timely illustration of just how valuable individual MVNO relationships can be, as well as the negative impact of losing one.
Specifically, the company’s first-half 2026 results showed strong overall revenue growth, but its domestic performance was affected by the loss of a major MVNO customer, Coop Voce.
In 2025, that company—Italy's second-largest MVNO—moved to an exclusive wholesale agreement with Fastweb+Vodafone, taking around 2.3 million customers with it, a move with a long tail in terms of Telecom Italia’s global profit margins.
That’s a big hit – and confirms how MVNO partners have become a strategic asset.
This kind of bottom-line impact reinforces how MVNO relationships can make a material contribution to the performance of the wholesale business. Losing a significant MVNO can have a measurable impact on revenues and profitability.
That makes MVNO retention just as important as recruitment. The challenge is that there is no single MVNO model; a financial services company may want mobile to reinforce its digital ecosystem and customer experience, while a retailer may want to build a network off a very different proposition, while another MVNO may compete primarily on price or target a specific demographic or niche market.
The continued growth of these different models means MNOs need to support multiple business propositions without creating operational complexity. Wholesale provides MNOs with a great way to extend their reach and generate additional value from existing network infrastructure, but doing that effectively requires the right technology.
Accessing proven, scalable MVNO-servicing tech and tools
This is where working with someone like Digitalk can really help. A wholesale MVNE platform such as our Digitalk Mobile Cloud can give operators the tools and flexibility needed to support different MVNO propositions through a common environment.
Rather than treating every MVNO relationship as a bespoke implementation, MNOs can create a more adaptable approach to wholesale mobile, one capable of evolving as their partners' requirements change.
That flexibility can become a definite competitive advantage when MNOs are competing to win new wholesale customers. There is also the factor that as the MVNO market grows, demands on their MNO partners will get more sophisticated, too.
Can you genuinely help them differentiate their offerings, respond quickly to customer demand and evolve their propositions without being held back by inflexible wholesale infrastructure?
Do you, in other words, have the right MVNE solution to support multiple MVNO partners, each with different aspirations and demands – and retain them, so you can really benefit in the long-terms as they grow?
If you agree that MVNOs need to be nurtured as a valuable source of revenue and profit, but you need the right capabilities to win, support, and keep them, why not look at a proven MVNE solution that allows differentiated MVNO propositions to be built and sustained, with the flexibility you need to stay ahead, recruit and retain more MVNO partners – and more importantly, help them grab some of that multi-billion-pound opportunity?
Feels like today might be the ideal time to strike up a conversation to see. Drop us an email to see.
