Versent Mobile latest MVNE entrant

DBS Communications, a Chicago area company that has operated a prepaid mobile virtual network operator for the last eight years, today launched Versent Mobile, a new mobile virtual network enabler.

Though MVNEs have become virtually as common as MVNOs over the last couple of years, Versent is touting an end-to-end enablement methodology that includes provisioning, billing, retail and customer care technology platforms; wholesale carrier airtime access on the national networks of Sprint or Cingular Wireless; and of course, it own eight years of MVNO experience.

"We decided we had everything the MVNOs needed to get going, so we said, 'Let's formalize this as a business,’" said Scott Merkle, senior vice president at Versent Mobile. The company actually stepped into the MVNE business in a less formal way last year, when kid-focused MVNO Firefly Mobile's had a problem with the MVNE it was using at the time, just before it was to launch its offering broadly in Target retail stores.

"There is no way we would have made our slot date with Target without Versent," said Robin Abrams, Firefly Mobile CEO, in a statement. "Their willingness to go above and beyond the call to assist with rapid device certification, custom system design and development and proprietary systems integration to brand new fulfillment processes made Firefly Mobile a reality."

The Firefly launch actually posed some different challenges than Versent had faced in its own MVNO operation, a division called EZLink that serves urban ethnic markets with a prepaid offering available and renewable through neighborhood corner stories. "That's a high-touch retail environment, and Target isn't," Merkle said. "The Firefly launch required easy self-activation for consumers."

Merkle said Versent already is talking to other potential MVNO players, including a hip-hop artist and a large retailer wanting to do its own house wireless brand. The company faces stiff competition from other one-stop MVNE shops like Visage Mobile, as well as teams of vendors with different specialties that are partnering to provide MVNE support components. But, Merkle noted that Visage "is just launching its first MVNO [Mobile ESPN, which is due to launch this Sunday during the Superbowl], and we have been at this for eight years."