MVNOs still coming on board at Telcordia

The mobile virtual network operator may still be an unproven model, or at least an uncertain one, but with the launch of “tween market” MVNO kajeet late last month, Telcordia is at least proving it has a solid enabling platform. It now has a baker's dozen of wireless providers working on its hosted platform.

Kajeet targets 8- to 15-year-olds, putting it up against another Telcordia user: Disney, which is going after the whole family. Disney also relies on platforms from Convergys and Visage Mobile, as do other Telcordia MVNO customers, as part of completely hosted solutions.

Last April, when Telcordia signed Disney, Yankee Group said the MVNO market would grow to $10.7 billion by 2010. That was before ESPN pulled the plug on its fledgling service, and Sprint put a temporary moratorium on new MVNOs.

Though no numbers are yet available on Disney's adoption rate, the company says it “continues to do well,” at least in North America. Adoption seems to have stalled somewhat in Europe, rather like its theme park there.

Still, after launching its platform in March 2005, Telcordia has signed 13 MVNOs, including Movida, its first. Movida is targeting the Hispanic market and now reportedly has about 500,000 subscribers. A month later, Flying-J, an enterprise company addressing the highway hospitality services industry, selected Telcordia to launch its prepaid wireless service to the nation's transportation industry. A month after that, Total Call Mobile and Telcordia announced the launch of that company's international direct dial mobile service. With it, Total Call targets multicultural ethnic groups in the U.S.

For its pay-as-you go approach, kajeet uses Telcordia's Hosted Solution for MVNOs, part of its service delivery suite. The new MVNO figures it can capture some of the 70% of the tween market that is not yet being served, by easing kids and parents into the world of mobile technology and combining entertainment, information and services that interest kids.

Telcordia uses its real-time charging engine to define rating rules for different services. “We have multiple buckets for voice, data and text that allows kajeet to say who pays for what services,” said Cathy McMahon, executive director of product management for hosted solutions for Telcordia.

Daniel Neal, founder and CEO of kajeet, said it selected the Telcordia platform because its scale and reliability in delivering services could meet the expectations of the entire family.

Such services include the kajeet Configurator, which lets users and their families manage budgets, set up call lists and monitor account activity. Configurator includes features such as WalletManager, which allows kids and parents to determine who pays for what; ContactManager, which establishes who can or can't call or text the kajeet phone; and TimeManager, which controls when the phone can and cannot be used.

These services are all managed by Telcordia's platform. Parents are not required to have a kajeet phone to access these management features.

After 13 MVNO implementations, McMahon said Telcordia pretty much has the process down and can typically turn up an MVNO within four months of the contract signing. “It's not cookie-cutter, but we have streamlined the process,” she said. “The flexibility of our real-time charging engine still lets people do things their own way.”

McMahon said Telcordia has more MVNOs in the pipeline and could announce its 14th MVNO as soon as next month.

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