Mexico's Megacable: Red Compartida made MVNO dream come true

Mexican pay-TV and triple-play operator Megacable's long-held dream of launching a mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) in the country finally came to fruition and the company has Altán Redes' Red Compartida wholesale network to thank for it, a company executive told BNamericas.

This week, Megacable announced an ambitious plan to offer its subscribers 500,000 sim cards to access their new, Mega4.5G MVNO for free for three months, with up to 10Gb of navigation capacity a month. Coverage will be initially limited to the cities of Guadalajara, Puebla, León, Morelia, Toluca, Tepic and Colima, the company said in a statement.

After that three-month period ends, users will be able to decide whether they want to retain the line by loading additional balance, it added.

The project represents the launch of Megacable's long-awaited MVNO and its aspiration to become a quadruple-play provider. Company CEO Enrique Yamuni mentioned the aim of launching the project in a conference call last July.

Gerardo Seifert, Megacable's marketing director, told BNamericas that "conditions are now different. Conditions on Altán's network allowed us to set a competitive offer in the market that will give us the possibility of capturing customers and achieve... participation in the mobile market."

He added via email that the project will increase coverage as the Red Compartida's project expands its footprint across the country, and that, at least for the moment, there are no intentions to purchase air time from other operators.

AMBITIOUS PLANS FOR MVNO MARKET

The 500,000 sim cards that the company aims to put on the market seem like a tall order in a market where MVNOs have failed to gain traction for years, and where such service providers accounted for only 1.7mn lines or around 1.4% of total lines, according to official data as of 3Q18.

But telecoms regulator the IFT said recently that the country's MVNO market could grow by up to 28% to 2.6mn lines in 2019, as the Red Compartida makes projects easier to develop.

"These first 500,000 lines are a market test," Seifert said. "Our subscribers will be able to enjoy the service free of charge." The number is larger than current MVNO niche leader Freedom, which operated 396,000 lines as of September of last year.

The service, which will announce commercial pricing and promotions from April, will be targeted at heavy data users, he added.