What is an MVNO and How Does it Save Money on Your Cellular Bill? [MakeUseOf Explains] . . . . What cellular consumers don’t know can hurt them. In the United States and Canada, we’re taught that smartphone service costs an arm and a leg – and we need to sign contracts because cell phones are so pricey. That’s a bald-faced lie. Contracts actually increase the price of service by hundreds, or thousands, each year. A simple way to stop getting scammed is by buying an unlocked phone, like the Nexus 5 (check out our Nexus 5 review), and using prepaid cellular companies known as “MVNOs”. MVNOs – alternative carriers to the big cellular companies – save customers money by leasing chunks of cellular broadcast spectrum from the big four carriers, reselling to the little guy at a substantial discount. They offer lower rates, and contract-free purchases at the cost of losing data roaming (reduced data coverage) and potentially call quality. I’ve written before about the advantages of MVNOs for contract cellular customers in the US and Canada. MVNO stands for Mobile Virtual Network Operator. OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA What’s an MVNO? The “V” in the initialism “MVNO” stands for virtual. They virtually operate networks by renting infrastructure. According to their contract with the carriers, MVNOs receive the exact same service as customers do. However, some exceptions do apply: Prioritization and roaming. Prioritization During periods of high usage, many cellular customers experience outages and call quality degradation. Some users suspected (perhaps rightfully) that MVNOs receive the lowest quality network bandwidth – the so-called “garbage” minutes that carriers don’t use during periods of peak activity.
Posted on: Mon, 26 Jan 2015 08:37:41 +0000
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