United American Corp. (UAMA)

[65actual]

What does it take to launch MVNO besides capital?

1) An underlying deal with major facilities-based wireless carrier!

2) A brand? You know like "Virgin" or "Fido".

3) Differentiation. Best value, lowest price, best coverage?

4) Advertising support throughout the sales area. Direct mail, e-mail, radio-tv-print media and rinse and repeat daily.

5) Store fronts with excellent look, feel, and full line of contemporary devices. Yep! iPhone a must.

6) Warm, friendly, well trained staff of sales associates.

7)Or, could take fully on-line sales though history shows that has been tried by many and consumers have generally gone to local stores even if it means driving a half-day to get there. Not a winning strategy for a new market entrant.

8)How to gain competitive edge against a growing field? That will be a constant challenge as the more desperate players engage in a race to the bottom.

If you've read this far you may be curious about the true cost of capturing a new subscriber and you may be interested in learning the industry figures. So when you add up all the period costs of advertising, store fronts, device activation, device subsidy, customer service, etc. etc. the average cost to activate a new subscriber is in the range of $300-350 regardless of whether you're a nascent new market entrant or a well established MVNO or facilities-based carrier.

Launching a new MVNO throughout a large geographical area obviously takes capital but it also takes a talented team of proven marketing and sales personnel and administrators that know how to get the job done. Most new market entrants fail or voluntarily withdraw from the market.

I know how difficult and rewarding this can be as I built the largest MVNO in the US at the time.