What is Mobile Virtual Network Operator

Virtual SIM cards have long become the norm even for our country: it costs you nothing to go to the operator’s website and get yourself a new number. Do you understand how cool it is? To some extent, even the sellers of “left” SIM cards near the metro have ceased to be relevant – everything is so simple to create a new number in 2021 that you don’t even need to get up from the couch. In parallel with this, more and more virtual telecom operators are actively appearing in Russia – companies that promote services under their own brand, but operate on the equipment of another operator. They form entire ecosystems and set new trends in the mobile communications market. Here’s how it works and why it makes sense.

How does a Mobile Virtual Network Operator Work

It’s no joke, but the operators are not so virtual – companies work on the existing infrastructure, but not on their own. For this, MVNO-companies ( Mobile Virtual Network Operator – virtual mobile operator) lease it, in fact, buying large volumes of traffic from mobile operators at a wholesale price. It is later resold at retail under its own brand to the end consumer. By the way, an amazing fact, but virtual operators appeared quite a long time ago – back in the 90s of the last century in Great Britain due to the rapid spread of cellular communications among the population.

One of the first virtual operators was Virgin Mobile , a subsidiary of the Virgin Group. In Russia, Euroset became the first full-fledged virtual operator in 2007 on the basis of SMARTS – still fresh memories of how salons offered to install a Java application for free calls to any numbers. The main difference in the activities of domestic operators and foreign ones is that in the West, profits are calculated in billions of dollars, while in our country companies earn several times less.

Russian virtual operators

It should be noted that the coverage area of ​​the donor operator and the virtual operator is the same. Therefore, the supported networking technologies are the same. For example, Yota is actively promoting LTE Advanced (by the way, we talked about this ), which coincides with MegaFon’s technologies. It is believed that virtual operators receive an available resource from the main mobile operator: it usually ranges from 20 to 40%, but it all depends on how actively the MVNO is promoting its services. If one of them gets a larger number of subscribers, then both the speed of Internet access and the quality of voice communication will vary greatly between operators on the same real network.

Virtual operators in Russia are a fairly new phenomenon, and their number is only growing every year. Clients are attracted by favorable tariffs: banking organizations, for example, Tinkoff Mobile, are especially successful in this. The company simply includes the tariff for communication in the service of the card, in fact, making communication free for its client. Rate constructors are also in demand – thanks to them, you can collect the required package of traffic, minutes or SMS messages that will be included in your monthly package. By the way, virtual operators in Russia are a very young technology that is subject to sudden failures. It has not been tested by time, so if you want to protect yourself from this, then it is better to use SIM cards of real mobile operators .

Virtual Operators 2021

It is very difficult to choose a virtual operator in Russia. Citizens continue to choose the classic options, only occasionally experimenting with new technologies. Which operator is better?

• If you need minutes, then you should take a closer look at the virtual operator SberMobile – it offers large volumes of minutes of calls in one package, streaming services and unlimited instant messengers. By the way, communication services are included in Sberbank’s subscription – there is a chance to use them for free.
• The most profitable virtual operator is Tinkoff Mobile . It works on the basis of Tele2 and has a tariff designer: you can collect a tariff for yourself so as not to overpay. Cons: Tele2 is not the most popular operator in Russia. It is not in every city, as a result of which there is simply no connection. I can note that its Internet connection speed is quite high, and interruptions are rare.
• Drimsim is one of the most popular operators for traveling not only in Europe but around the world . It is not a virtual one. The reviews that I have received from my acquaintances are overwhelmingly positive. The company offers eSIM cards, which greatly simplifies the process of activation and use.