50% of MVNOs Don’t Last 5 Years: Don’t Be One
A warning is starting to sound familiar in Nigeria’s MVNO conversation: some industry stakeholders believe up to half of the newly licensed operators could collapse within five years if they do not adapt to the realities of the market. It is not just that failure is possible. It is that the real problem is often not the network itself, but everything built around it. That is the part many businesses miss. An MVNO, or Mobile Virtual Network Operator, does not own the full network infrastructure. It sells telecom services by building on top of an existing network. In other words, the network is only one piece of the business. The customer experience — how people join, pay, get help, and stay engaged — is what turns access into a real business. Successful operators define customer experience across every touchpoint, from SIM activation to call center to merchandising, and they put strong processes and customer-facing systems in place early. That matters becau...