Launching a mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) has traditionally been complex, resource-heavy, and costly. From negotiating with carriers and managing integrations to handling regulations and overseeing large teams of telecom professionals, the barriers to entry have kept many brands and service providers on the sidelines. But that’s changing, and in this blog, we’ll look at how you can launch an MVNO with OXIO and AT&T.
With OXIO’s wholesale network and Telecom-as-a-Service (TaaS) platform, which connects to Tier-1 carriers around the world, including AT&T, building an MVNO is faster, simpler, and more flexible than ever before. We are making it possible for any business or brand to unlock new revenue streams, strengthen customer relationships, and bring mobile connectivity to markets at scale.
MVNO market growth and why timing matters (2023-2024)
Over the past decade, the MVNO market has shifted from being a niche alternative to a major force in wireless. With their focus on competitive pricing and sharp marketing, MVNOs continue to attract cost-conscious consumers, and carriers have embraced this model by opening their networks to partners that can reach new segments more effectively.
In 2023, the U.S. MVNO market was valued at about USD 27.96 billion, and analysts project a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of ~7.5 % through 2030. Even more conservative forecasts estimate the market growing from USD 16.8 billion in 2024 to nearly USD 26.6 billion by 2034 — a CAGR of ~4.7 %.
This growth is fueled by evolving consumer expectations: people want affordability without sacrificing coverage, and they value transparency over the complexity of traditional postpaid contracts. At the same time, innovations in cloud-native, democratized telecom are opening the door for businesses and brands outside the traditional telecom industry to enter the market. Many fintechs, retailers and even influencers are launching their own MVNOs or embedding connectivity into existing digital products and services to extend customer loyalty programs, bundle mobile access with core offerings, or create entirely new digital experiences.
As competition intensifies, the MVNO market is no longer about simply undercutting on price, it’s about finding creative ways to serve specific communities and needs. Whether it’s unlimited global calling, family-first plans, or customized data packages, MVNOs are redefining what wireless can look like for millions of consumers around the world.
Choosing a carrier for your MVNO
One of the most important decisions when launching an MVNO has been selecting the right carrier partner. The carrier you choose determines not only the quality and reach of your network coverage, but also the economics of your business, your ability to scale, and the type of customers you can effectively serve. While all Tier 1 carriers in the U.S. offer strong networks, the nuances in coverage, wholesale terms, and support make a big difference for new entrants.
Because switching carriers later on is incredibly complex and often not economically viable, most MVNOs remain locked into their initial choice, making this a decision with long-lasting consequences. This is a challenge OXIO solves through its multi-MNO, multi-RAN and technology agnostic architecture, which removes carrier lock-in and will be explored later in this blog.
When selecting a carrier, MVNOs have needed to prioritize network quality since coverage, reliability, and 5G performance directly shape the customer experience. Strong national reach and consistent service are essential for building trust with subscribers.
The economics of the wholesale deal also matter. Pricing models, roaming terms and data costs will define whether you can offer competitive plans while maintaining healthy margins. Traditionally, many MVNOs have worked through an MVNA or MVNE to secure access and manage these wholesale agreements. While that model can simplify initial setup, it often introduces additional costs, less flexibility and slower responsiveness.
Finally, MVNOs have needed to look at flexibility and speed to market. Some carriers make it easier to innovate with features like eSIM support, APIs, and streamlined integrations, while others create long launch timelines and complex hurdles. Choosing the right partner ensures you can deliver a differentiated, customer-first offering without getting stuck in telecom red tape.
MVNOs leveraging the AT&T network
The AT&T network has long been a powerhouse in U.S. mobile connectivity, and many MVNOs choose to build on top of its nationwide reach. AT&T has a balance of broad national coverage, strong 5G footprint, and robust wholesale partnerships that make it easier for MVNOs to secure competitive rates and reliable access. AT&T’s reputation for consistency in suburban and rural areas also appeals to operators looking to serve customers outside of dense metropolitan hubs. For many MVNOs, these factors make AT&T a great partner to deliver differentiated mobile experiences while still leaning on a trusted and well-established network.
AT&T’s MVNOs include some of the most recognizable brands on the market:
Boost Mobile – Operating on both the AT&T and T-Mobile networks, Boost Mobile offers nationwide coverage with a variety of prepaid plans and pricing options. The brand is part of DISH Wireless and continues to expand its services through ongoing 5G rollout efforts.
US Mobile – US Mobile provides customers with access to multiple Tier 1 networks in the U.S., allowing users to customize their mobile plans and switch networks as needed. The company maintains MVNO agreements with all three national carriers.
Cricket Wireless – A wholly owned subsidiary of AT&T, Cricket Wireless operates as a prepaid carrier offering national coverage, straightforward plan options, and an extensive retail footprint across the United States.
H2O Wireless – H2O Wireless operates as an MVNO using AT&T’s network, providing prepaid mobile services with an emphasis on international calling options and contract-free plans.
Fonus Mobile – Fonus Mobile is an MVNO that uses AT&T’s network to deliver mobile data and voice services, offering international calling and data-centric plans designed for global users.
Red Pocket Mobile – Red Pocket Mobile gives customers the option to connect through multiple U.S. networks, including AT&T, offering prepaid plans aimed at flexibility and affordability for a wide range of users.
Pure Talk – Pure Talk operates on AT&T’s network, offering prepaid mobile plans that focus on affordability and nationwide coverage for individual and family users.
What OXIO’s Telecom-as-a-Service changes
For years, launching an MVNO meant facing long timelines, high upfront costs, and a steep learning curve. From negotiating wholesale agreements with carriers to building and integrating complex telecom infrastructure, the process was often measured in years rather than months. Many new entrants struggled just to get off the ground, leaving little room to innovate or differentiate once they finally launched.
OXIO changes this. By offering a cloud-native Telecom-as-a-Service platform, OXIO removes the hassle that has traditionally bogged down MVNO launches. Instead of investing in costly infrastructure or navigating complex integrations, brands can rely on OXIO’s prebuilt stack, complete with provisioning, billing, compliance, and analytics, all delivered through an intuitive platform and simple APIs. This dramatically shortens time to market, making it possible to launch a custom mobile offering in weeks instead of years.
With its global telecom core that pulls the world’s best carriers into a single network in the cloud, OXIO is designed like any modern SaaS solution. Our platform enables companies to build their ideal telecom product quickly and in real-time, using an array of exclusive personalization tools that are available through our no-code platform.
OXIO eliminates the complexities and costs associated with traditional telecom, allowing customers to pay as they scale and turning telecom into a service you integrate, not an asset you build, manage and maintain. With a core network, OXIO becomes the carrier, essentially cutting out the middleman so MVNOs no longer need to work with an MNO/MVNA/MVNE to go to market, saving them time, money and giving them the global platform that turns connectivity from a basic utility into a strategic business lever. By defying these traditional boundaries, OXIO is exposing all of telecom’s possibilities, enabling companies to access the data and tools they need to deliver world-class customer experiences that increase revenue and drive customer satisfaction and retention.
The OXIO x AT&T collaboration
Back in 2024, OXIO announced a new collaboration with AT&T, which enabled us to connect our wholesale network with AT&T’s infrastructure to further expand our Telecom-as-a-Service solution across the United States. A major milestone that empowers rapid innovation, use case expansion, and additional wholesale capabilities never seen before in the market. We’re empowering brands and businesses to launch an MVNO with AT&T and OXIO faster and with greater flexibility than ever before.
By connecting OXIO’s global telecom core with towers on AT&T’s powerful nationwide network, we are unlocking new wholesale opportunities across industries while democratizing access to connectivity and lowering barriers to entry. This collaboration goes beyond standard API integrations and represents a deep, RAN-level connection, where AT&T’s network is directly and seamlessly linked to OXIO’s cloud-native core. The result is a robust and flexible foundation for delivering next-generation connectivity experiences at scale. Our customers gain full, real-time network control along with secure, actionable business intelligence that helps them understand customer behavior, uncover new revenue opportunities, and enhance their go-to-market strategies.
Build, manage and optimize your MVNO with OXIO + AT&T
Traditionally, building an MVNO has not been easy. From negotiating wholesale agreements directly with Tier-1 carriers, which can take months and often result in high costs and slim margins, to building or buying the necessary infrastructure, such as billing systems, provisioning tools, SIM management and more, the deep telecom expertise and upfront investment are significant. Add in the need to integrate with carrier backends and navigate strict regulatory requirements, and it’s easy to see why traditional launches often take 12 to 24 months or longer.
The real downside of this model is that so much effort goes into simply standing up the basics that innovation takes a back seat. Many MVNOs end up competing only on price or marketing prowess, rather than delivering differentiated services or unique brand experiences. In a market where consumer expectations are shifting quickly, this lack of agility makes it difficult for new entrants to succeed.
When you launch an MVNO with AT&T and OXIO, the experience is completely different. The traditional complexities that have long made entering the telecom market so difficult are removed, and the whole process is more seamless. With OXIO’s modern, cloud-native Telecom-as-a-Service solution that leverages AT&T’s infrastructure, brands can build their ideal telecom product with complete freedom and flexibility, and in just a few days.
Build your MVNO: weeks, not months, with a no-code platform
With OXIO, you’re in full control of your connectivity offering. You have the freedom to design mobile plans that truly reflect your customers’ preferences, lifestyles, and needs. Instead of choosing from a rigid, pre-set menu of plans, you decide how much or how little to customize your mobile services. From tailoring features and pricing on plans to creating unique promotions or zero-rating your customers’ favorite apps, this is your MVNO, built entirely on your terms.
Even more importantly, OXIO removes traditional carrier lock-in, giving you the ability to blend multiple networks for the best possible coverage and performance, without being tied to a single carrier. Our true cross-border solution allows your service to operate seamlessly across regions and markets, providing consistent, high-quality connectivity wherever your subscribers go.
You also don’t need any telecom background to get started. OXIO’s no-code TaaS platform, BrandVNO™, gives you all the tools to design, launch, and manage your ideal mobile service with complete ease.
Manage your MVNO: real-time control, webhooks, and plan agility
Managing an MVNO through traditional methods can be difficult. While MVNOs don’t build their own networks, they are often burdened with complex operational requirements that can often demand specialized expertise, multiple partners, and constant oversight, resulting in significant costs and barriers that can be prohibitive for many new entrants.
For many MVNOs, the result is a struggle to keep up, with resources entangled within operational complexity rather than focused on innovation and growth. With OXIO, the story is very different.
From managing your subscriptions and line groups to setting up simple webhooks for seamless data syncs and configuring data allowances, you have full, real-time network control via one intuitive interface. Because of this control, you have the ability to change up mobile plans for customers based on changes in the market so you can always give your customers what they need when they need it.
With OXIO, you can also understand the health of your MVNO in real-time. OXIO provides its customers with MVNO Dashboards that give them access to consumable data and insights that enable them to quickly assess their mobile business, no matter their telecom experience. Data around lines, user plans and consumption can all be accessed through one intuitive, self-service interface so that MVNOs can make informed business decisions, bolster their strategy and identify trends that might be occurring within their end-user base which require them to change up their offering.
These dashboards, while effective on their own, can also be extracted and combined with other data sets using OXIO’s industry-leading API. MVNOs can seamlessly integrate this data into their own data warehouses or CRM systems, enriching business intelligence and fueling stronger marketing and customer engagement strategies. With this level of visibility, MVNOs no longer have to operate in the dark, and every decision can be guided by actionable insights.
Optimize your MVNO: unique, network-level intelligence
One of the biggest challenges MVNOs face is the lack of visibility into customer and network data. Unlike carriers, which have full access to usage patterns, device insights, and real-time network performance metrics, MVNOs receive only a limited set of wholesale reports relating to customer usage. This restricted view makes it difficult to understand how subscribers are actually using their plans, where service gaps exist, or what kinds of features would drive loyalty. Without this data, MVNOs are often forced to rely on guesswork when designing rate plans, promotions, or value-added services.
This lack of insight directly impacts competitiveness. In today’s market, consumers expect plans that feel personalized, whether it’s flexible data buckets, international calling, or seamless roaming options. Carriers can tailor offerings based on deep analytics, but MVNOs without that level of access struggle to optimize their pricing or product mix. As a result, many end up competing only on price rather than on differentiated experiences, which makes it harder to grow sustainably in an increasingly crowded market.
With OXIO, not only can you build and manage an MVNO on our cloud-native network with AT&T, but you also have the ability to optimize your mobile offering through OXIO’s unique network-level intelligence, powered by our privacy-preserving BI solution, BrandIQ. Powering your MVNO with OXIO means you no longer have to operate in the dark.
As OXIO operates its own global network core that connects to a carrier’s RAN, we have the ability to surface this subscriber intelligence for customers so that they can understand their subscriber base on a deeper level and use this knowledge to power smarter business decisions and better marketing campaigns.
With BrandIQ, the data shows you exactly where to focus. By tapping into insights from social media trends, competitive app intelligence, location analysis, and more, you gain the clarity needed to fine-tune your mobile offering. Intuitive, self-service dashboards provide 24/7 visibility into subscriber patterns, preferences, and behavior, empowering you to supercharge your MVNO with a truly customer-centric approach to connectivity.
Driving the telecom industry forward with AT&T
To launch an MVNO with AT&T and OXIO has never been easier. By combining OXIO’s cloud-native TaaS platform with AT&T’s nationwide infrastructure, businesses gain the tools and data to create their ideal mobile product, built on their own terms with unmatched flexibility and speed to market. This collaboration empowers brands across industries such as fintech, retail, and media to launch and scale MVNOs without the traditional hurdles and complexities of telecom.
Through the growing MVNx ecosystem, companies also tap into a network of partners, technologies, and opportunities that accelerate growth and enable real differentiation. The result is a powerful foundation that allows businesses to deliver tailored mobile experiences, strengthen customer loyalty, and unlock entirely new possibilities in today’s connected world.
OXIO provides MVNOs and brands with everything they need to build, manage, and optimize their connectivity strategy, while maintaining the flexibility to pivot as markets evolve. This empowers MVNOs to stay ahead of shifting consumer expectations and demographic trends, enabling them to respond in real time. This is the future of telecom, and we’re proud to collaborate with AT&T and other global carriers to help shape an industry that’s more open, flexible, and dynamic.
Click here to learn more about how to launch an MVNO with AT&T and OXIO.
