Everyone Wants to Be an MVNO. Almost No One Should

Why Distribution Equity — Not Branding or Pricing — Decides Who Survives

Every Failed MVNO Is a Failure of Distribution

There’s a wave of MVNO excitement crashing over the Nigerian telecom space right now. New licenses. Big dreams. Pitch decks full of global case studies and “affordable data” slogans. And sure, there’s something in the air.

But here’s the truth: most MVNOs are doomed from day one — and not for the reasons you think.

They don’t die because they priced their plans wrong. They don’t die because their branding was weak. And they don’t die because they didn’t raise enough capital.

They die because they had no real way to distribute to their desired customers.

Distribution is the real game. Not just marketing. Not awareness. Not buzz. Distribution equity — your ability to consistently and scalably get your product into the hands of the right customers, at the right time, in the right channel — is what separates the MVNOs that live from the ones that light money on fire.

One Quick Clarification Before We Go Further

This piece is focused squarely on consumer MVNOs — the ones selling talk, text, and data plans to everyday users. Not the IoT platforms. Not the B2B connectivity plays. This is about the brands that think they can win hearts, wallets, and market share with a clever offer, a bit of funding, and a slice of someone else’s network. The kind that print SIMs, push ads, and pray. That’s who this article is speaking to. And hopefully saving some from themselves.

You Can’t Differentiate in a Market That Doesn’t Reward It

A lot of MVNO founders believe their edge will be “differentiation.” Niche features. Content bundling. Brand-led storytelling. All of that sounds smart — but telecom is not a product-first category.

It’s a distribution game dressed up like a consumer business.

Here’s the uncomfortable truth: most consumers don’t care about your brand. They care about:

• Can they find you when they need a SIM?

• Can they trust that you’ll work?

• Can they top up easily and cheaply?

That’s why MVNOs that focused on features — even in brand-obsessed markets like the U.S. — failed anyway. Disney Mobile had parental controls. ESPN Mobile had real-time sports content. Yahoo Mobile had… Yahoo. All dead. Because no one knew where to get them, no one saw them in the places they shopped, and no one understood how they were better than what they already had.

MVNOs sell a utility. They win through reach, not resonance.

MVNOs That Failed — And Why It Was Really About Distribution

Let’s make this concrete. Here’s a look at several high-profile MVNOs, how long they lasted, and why their failure ultimately came down to distribution equity.

Failed MVNOs and Distribution Equity Gaps

Brand Equity Doesn’t Translate — Even in Developed Markets

This is the part that should really shake you if you’re building an MVNO.

In the U.S., a market that does reward brand equity, companies like Disney, ESPN, and Yahoo failed. These are names with hundreds of millions of dollars in brand value — names people trust, names people love.

And yet… when they stepped into the MVNO space, it didn’t translate. Because they lacked distribution equity. They weren’t on shelves. They weren’t in the right bundles. They weren’t seamlessly integrated into customer journeys.

You can build desire with brand equity.

You can only deliver access with distribution equity.

Even in the most brand-obsessed markets, telco is a logistics business.

But Weren’t There Other Problems Too?

Yes — on the surface, many of these MVNOs failed for reasons like bad pricing, high churn, weak branding, or poor execution. But look closer, and you’ll see the root cause wasn’t any of those. It was distribution equity — or the lack of it. You can’t fix churn if you never reach the right customers. You can’t price effectively if your only path to acquisition is burning money on ads. You can’t test product-market fit if your SIM isn’t available where people actually buy. Even brilliant brands and solid products collapse when there’s no infrastructure to carry them to scale. Distribution isn’t the last-mile of your strategy. It’s the first. Without it, every other problem is magnified. With it, most problems can be survived.

And What About the Ones That Did Succeed?

It’s not all failure. A handful of MVNOs have broken through — but always for the same reason: they built with distribution first. Tesco Mobile piggybacked on every Tesco store in the UK, turning grocery foot traffic into SIM activations. Tracfone and Straight Talk used Walmart’s shelves to scale nationally in the U.S. Lycamobile embedded itself in corner shops and ethnic retail corridors across Europe. These weren’t app-first, brand-first, or even price-first models. They were distribution-first. That’s the throughline. Success in this space doesn’t come from innovation. It comes from integration — into retail, into routine, into reach.

So Why Is Everyone So Bullish Now?

Because it feels exciting. Nigeria is opening up MVNO licensing. Everyone sees the mobile ARPU and wants a piece. I get it. But what I see is a lot of pipe dreams without pipes.

Everyone is talking about price points and app designs.

No one is talking about how they’re actually going to acquire 1 million active users — without bleeding out trying.

This is a hard business. It looks simple on the surface — buy wholesale, sell retail. But it’s unforgiving. It’s high-churn. High operational intensity. Extremely thin margin for error. Even well-capitalized MVNOs with global brands failed because they didn’t own the right pipes.

I’m Not Saying Don’t Do It — I’m Saying Go in With Your Eyes Open

You want to build an MVNO? Cool. But start with this question:

What do you know about distribution that the next guy doesn’t?

If your only answer is “our pricing is better,” or “our UI is slick,” or “we have a strong brand,” then you’re already on your way to being another row in the table above.

If, however, you have a real edge in getting to the customer — through retail partnerships, ecosystem bundling, loyalty programs, or something no one else sees — then you might have a shot.

But make no mistake: distribution isn’t part of the strategy. It is the strategy.

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I’ve been building on this thesis: distribution equity > brand equity > capital. MVNOs prove it. Over and over again.

So if you’re building one, ask yourself:

“Where does my distribution advantage live?”

If you don’t have a strong answer, don’t print the SIMs.

Not yet.