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Rural broadband operators poised to enter the MVNO market
Jeff Johnston
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Key points
- The days of offering consumers “triple play” bundles of cable TV, internet and home phone service are in the past. Taking their place are broadband and smartphone plan bundles.
- Wireless operators are deploying fixed wireless access (FWA) broadband service and bundling it with their smartphone plans. Large cable operators’ approach is to offer smartphone plans via a mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) model bundled with their fixed-line broadband services.
- Recent market data shows that consumers in urban and suburban markets are gravitating to these bundles, and rural broadband operators are taking notice.
- Many rural broadband operators are evaluating plans to offer smartphone services, and some are moving forward. Their aim is to either reduce churn, gain market share, or get ahead of what they believe will eventually be a standard offering.
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