SPOTLIGHT: MVNO financials less attractive than hype

Pyramid Research said the global MVNO subscriber base exceeded 63 million subscribers at the end of 2005, up 25 percent from 2004. MVNOs now account for 2.75 percent of the world's mobile users, and that's expected to increase to 3.3 percent by 2010, reaching more than 100 million subscribers, the firm said. Yet Pyramid throws out caution. It contends that the MVNO business faces some formidable challenges so the financials aren't attractive as the hype we're hearing. The firm found that most MVNOs are loss-making to slightly above break-even. Release