The establishment of virtual operators has become inevitable

Absrtact: With the support of private capital, the virtual operators in the domestic market face a rare opportunity of development. But at the same time, the problem of competition and profit of the virtual operator and basic telecom operator is also unavoidable

With the support of private capital to enter the basic telecommunications field documents, virtual operators in the domestic market face a rare opportunity for development. But at the same time, the competition problem and profit problem of virtual operator and basic telecom operator are also unavoidable challenges. In this respect, some experts said that the virtual operators of the challenge is imminent, and strengthen the private capital, foreign and operator cooperation, to solve the relationship with the basic operators, the formation of a fair competition between industrial chains is the best choice to achieve a win.

The establishment of virtual operators has become inevitable

June 28, 2012, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology issued the "on the encouragement and guidance of private capital to further enter the implementation of the telecommunications industry," clarified that the mainland will support private capital to enter the field of basic telecommunications, and strive in the mobile communications pilot business to launch a group of private demonstration enterprises, to increase the competitiveness of the This paper provides a good opportunity for the expansion of virtual operators in the domestic market.

In fact, virtual operators are not new concepts, in the 90 's, Europe and the United States and other countries have appeared a lot of virtual operators. But at home, until January 8, 2013, the Ministry of Industry issued the "Mobile Communications Resale Business Pilot Scheme" (draft), only generally accepted that the establishment of virtual operators has become inevitable.

Data show that there are more than 1100 mobile virtual operators worldwide, most of which are located in developed regions such as Europe and America. By 2015, the number of mobile subscribers to global virtual operators is expected to reach 186 million, accounting for 2.6% of global mobile subscribers. At the same time, ovum that the Asia-Pacific region will lead the global MVNO activities in the next 5 years, total MVNO revenue in the Asia-Pacific region will reach $980 million in 2015, a 10% increase compared with 2010. This shows the market growth potential of the Asia-Pacific region.

Virtual operator profitability is not easy

With the development of the mobile Internet, the traditional operators ' business is being hit hard, especially the OTT enterprises ' squeezing to the traditional operators is very obvious, these businesses make the original SMS, voice, even including the international telephone business are challenged.

But for the virtual operator, the biggest problem that needs to be solved is how to deal with the relationship with the basic telecom operators. "Virtual operators hire the network pipeline resources of the three major operators, and the price may be constrained by it, and in the retail business, it is a competition relationship with the telecom operators," said one person.

"Virtual operators get wholesale prices from base operators and then go retail, but the underlying operators themselves are doing retail, so the relationship is obvious." Shankai, a professor at Beijing University of Posts and telecommunications, points out that the "Ministry of Industry pilot scheme does not prescribe wholesale prices for telecom resale operations, which could lead to competition between virtual operators and base operators." ”

Shankai also noted with concern that "if a virtual operator is able to earn revenue by innovating the telecoms resale business, it must be very careful that the underlying operator may say I do it myself." "A word of tension with basic operators.

Bingbin, chairman of Booz Consulting, said, "from the development of foreign virtual operators, the average user share is only 3%, investment return cycle is long, mobile virtual operators are not so easy to profit." ”

It's the best way to win together

At present, the competition between telecom operators, in fact, is not only between the operators, but the operator-centric industrial value chain between the competition.

It is reported that since 2012, the Ministry of Industry issued the "on the encouragement and guidance of private capital further into the telecommunications implementation of the opinion" provisions, "basic telecommunications companies should ensure that at least in the pilot period with more than 2 resale enterprises", but it is also clear that the resale of business operators in line with value-added telecommunications business management, and can not build networks, no number of resources, Status will resemble SP enterprises. This document interprets the virtual operator and the base operator as dependencies.

In this connection, China Unicom chairman Chang said during the two sessions this year, "the basic operators in the future and virtual operators have cooperation opportunities, but if you can not find the way to big cake, will bring pressure on the entire industry." He also said that if it is simple to cut the cake, "Maybe we eat today, there will be no tomorrow." The words of the word out of the wisdom of winning.

Liu Yu, Nomura's director of communications strategy, is the most important part of the target user segmentation. "Target customer segmentation, geographical subdivision, and the integration of the operator's resources to complement each other, cock silk reverse attack high handsome is not impossible." "The breakthrough of every detail is the foundation of the cooperation, and win is the common goal."