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Rumors swirled around the telecom industry for weeks that T-Mobile would be buying the Ryan Reynolds led Mint Mobile. But the real shock came when T-Mobile announced it was not only acquiring Mint, but their largest MVNO in the dealer channel, Ultra Mobile (estimated 750,000 to 850,000 subscribers), and MVNO aggregator Plum as well. As always, the CEO of T-Mobile and others lauded this as great for the industry, competition, and combining synergies. But questions remain and it’s anyone’s guess if the Department of Justice will sue to block this sale.
Let’s revisit recent history. In April 2018, T-Mobile announced that it was going to “merge” with Sprint in a $26 billion deal. Both Sprint’s and T-Mobile’s former CEOs went before Congress promising, amongst other things, increased competition, lower prices, no store closings, the hiring of 100,000 new employees, and no reduction in the current workforce.
We all know what happened. Two years later in 2020 after many contentious arguments, challenges, testimony, etc., the deal closed and to no one’s surprise, Sprint doors were shuttered (both corporate-owned and dealer owned), and nowhere near 100,000 new jobs were created. In fact, according to Todd Bishop in his April 11, 2023 article in Geek Wire, the combined companies now have 9,000 FEWER employees than they did pre-merger. https://www.geekwire.com/2023/3-years-after-sprint-merger-t-mobile-employs-9k-fewer-people-insists-it-upheld-pledge-on-jobs/ (This article is a great read!).
T-Mobile Has Done a Tremendous Job in All Parts of Their Business, But….
Okay, let me be clear, I have the utmost respect for T-Mobile for knocking Verizon off of the lofty perch it enjoyed for many years. Subscribers, network, etc., you can’t argue that Mr. Sievert and his Team haven’t done an outstanding job in delivering what Wall Street wants.
But let’s go back to the issue at hand. The current landscape sees the three largest MVNOs owned by a carrier; Boost Mobile (by DISH), Cricket Wireless (by AT&T), and Metro by T-Mobile, and of course there was Verizon’s $6.2 billion purchase of Tracfone. What happens now when Ultra becomes part of the T-Mobile prepaid group? And for that matter, here are other questions being asked:
What does this do for competition?
What should MVNOs be doing NOW if indeed this acquisition goes through?
Why should we believe that this is good for everyone?
I had the opportunity to speak with Peter Adderton about this over the past few days. Peter, as you know is the Founder of Boost Mobile (and current CEO of Boost Australia) and the brains behind the recently launched MobileX. Peter was adamantly opposed to the T-Mobile/Sprint merger, spending countless hours and over $200,000 of his own money appearing before Congress, meeting with the heads of the Justice Department and FCC, briefing numerous Attorneys Generals and appearing on numerous national news programs on the downside of that merger going through. No surprise that almost 100% of what Peter predicted would happen actually happened and he is concerned again about competition, pricing and what will happen to consumers if this Ultra/Mint/Plum acquisition goes through.
Adderton started off by telling me that,
“I have spent the last few years trying to raise awareness that MVNOs need protections and regulations of the effects from the regulators have made on both consumers and dealers by allowing these independent MVNOs to be sold. The regulators have decimated the MVNO market by allowing these MVNOs who have achieved scale (in their business) to be sold to MNOs. It’s a Catch-22; most new MVNOs only get better pricing by scaling (with thousands of new customers) but you cannot reach scale WITHOUT good pricing.”
With regards to competition, Peter continued,
“An acquisition like this reduces competition no matter how you look at it. Customers need independent MVNO brands with scale to keep prices low. It’s a fact and this is the reason that MVNOs were created in the first place.”
We discussed the success and failures of some of the MVNOs we have seen, and I asked Peter what an MVNO should do NOW to prepare for this acquisition,
“MVNOs can do little to be honest. We need regulators who have the power to make things right and reverse the damage they have caused by ensuring MVNOs are protected, remove exclusivity clauses (from the carrier’s contracts), remove MRC’s and give pricing that allows new and smaller MVNOs the ability to compete out of the gate. They also need to ensure that a percentage of all of the network traffic at all times come from MVNOs. “
“The bottom is that it’s tough to start an MVNO and it’s getting tougher as the MNOs growth stalls and they seek to acquire the subscribers of their MVNOs. MVNOs who were once niche players are now growing very fast and the MNOs treat them as competitors until they buy them when they get large. The Mint and Ultra deal should be challenged if there are no protections put in place to help smaller MVNOs succeed.”
So, is Peter Adderton correct, or is consolidation something that we are going to have to live with? We could be months away from closure on this acquisition and a lot of things can happen between now and then. However, those MVNOs who are in the game for the long run should not sit by and patiently wait for this to happen. Steps need to take place NOW to ensure that their businesses will remain profitable and poised for growth.
What Does the National Wireless Independent Dealer Association Think?
Another group that has been very vocal and supportive of independent dealers is the National Wireless Independent Dealer Association, NWIDA.
Adam Wolf, President of NWIDA reached out to me after the acquisition announcement and said,
“Obviously, our concern is the dealer network. T-Mobile has already terminated the vast majority of their dealer-owned stores, and if they are able to purchase Ultra, we're very concerned about the thousands of independently owned distribution doors that are in place today. When Verizon purchased Tracfone, they closed all the Total shops - and while they've rebranded with "Total by Verizon, not all the dealers reopened. The independent dealers need to be able to expand - not be contracted. We continue to talk with the carriers and MVNOs to help them grow their dealer networks - not shrink them.”
Disclaimer time. I work with all the carriers, their aggregators and many, many MVNOs on a regular basis and even do business with a lot of them. From my viewpoint as a former “carrier guy” who now spends 99% of his time working with and advising MVNOs and new entrants to our space, I try to present both sides of this story. I reached out to other T-Mobile MVNO aggregators and others (Ryan Reynolds at Mint didn’t take my call ????).
I guess we’ll see how this plays out. Meanwhile, the MVNO growth engine continues with Atrium Unlimited Consulting still receiving 3-5 calls per week from parties interested in becoming an MVNO. If you need assistance or just want to chat about the business, please reach out www.atriumunlimited.com/contact
Until next time, Good Selling!
Jon
Jon's consulting company, Atrium Unlimited, LLC, advises carriers, MVNOs, investment bankers, and venture capitalists interested in joining the wireless space.
Jon would love to hear from you about any consultative needs you may have.
Today is November 09 2025, and so much has changed in the MVNO market since this article was posted on April 18 2023.
We moved to MVNO service in Jan 2022, off Postpaid ATT.
We were on
ATT 2006-2009(High Prices),
Tmo 2009-2015(bad service outside of 6 miles in any city center),
ATT 2015-2022
(Sky High prices. By this time we were paying not only for our wireless service itself and all the expenses on that, but in addition we were also forced to pay 10$ mo per line x 4 for Lifeline Service plus tax every single month, so this came to anywhere from 50-60$ extra a month just for that and did not include our own taxes or phone plan itself for 4 people on family.
All told we paid approximately 5040$ over the life of our account @ 50-60$ every month for this service. A service we have not ever participated in. When I see these “Free Phone” Tents, I have to wonder why they say they are free. They are literally not free. Our family was forced to pay this.
In 2022 it just reached the point where we could not continue to pay for ourselves and everyone else as well. So we were financially forced to leave due to this.)
along with a month long hiatus on Credo Mobile (Sprint at the time) in 2011.
In Jan 2022, we moved to Jethro Mobile(Tmo) on their Annual Simple Plus Plan 8GB
(Premium Annual Plan).
In Jan 2023, we re-upped on the SPP w/Jethro.
In Jan 2024, we re-upped on the SPP w/Jethro
At this time (2024)
Jethro changed their voicemail provider off of Tmo to a subcontractor and the VM service was subpar, the LTE Voice started to slide, the phone calls started to slide, the data was unusable to any real degree anymore.
Since 2022 onboarding w/Tmo MVNO Jethro, we have bought 5 sets of new androids all lasting mere months before service degrades into nothing and requires a new handset.
Which does not factor in the following:
We tried out US Mobile for a spell in 2021 when we still were on Post Paid ATT, also had to buy new handsets to try out US Mobile, and that did not work out, same thing both on the Verizon handsets, and Tmo handsets–Terrible QCI. Nevermind data, phone calls would not come in on either. So we closed out that account and moved on.
We took the Tmo handsets we bought for trial on US Mobile and tried Mint as well while we were at it, and we got zero service. No QCI. This was with hours of tech support verifying the APN’s ect. So we closed out that account and moved on as well.
In the 5 months since we bought the new handsets to try Mint and USM, they were no good anymore for use on Tmo Jethro by the time we moved to them, so these could not be used, and required buying yet more handsets.
In our time at Jethro, we have been forced by Tmo to buy new handsets approximately once every 8-9 months, for 4 people. The service just dies without explanation, then when we buy new ones, it magically reappears. We have bought all of them BYOD.
ATT Postpaid, we had one set of phones for all 4 of us, for 7 years. We brought them from Tmobile where we bought them PIF in 2013 and had already been using them on Tmo for 2 years solid. So we used the same phones, for 9 years, across Tmo and ATT Postpaid.
We have, as of yet been unable to replicate this in any way on the MVNO’s. There is always something not compatible or not working.
Jan 2025 to Now.
The LTE towers in our area, have all gone away. Long before Tmo announced it’s “removal” they were gone for us. And, we can’t be the only ones. So, too little too late for us. June 2025 to now we have had most our calls that are incoming from our friends family re-directed to someone in Mexico. For some reason.
Here’s the interesting part. We aren’t on smartphones, we are on little Sonim flips Xp3’s. There are no controls in our Jethro Dashboard for any functions relating to this. Nor on our phones. The dashboard is very minimal, add time, look at call logs. Thats about it. The handsets are Proprietary UI slimmed down Android. No Google at all on these.
One of the lines sat un-used for a month (we don’t use phones often) and in that time, the Jethro Dashboard showed that line had been making and receiving calls the entire time it was off the network. The call log showed numbers that were not on our phone or had ever called our phone or that we had dialed.
This isn’t a smartphone thing. It’s a carrier thing. Something is really really wrong here.
So, we decided we have to leave Tmo, and ATT is not good here anymore, so we have to go Verizon. We need to be on an MVNO for the annual rate because I just don’t want to babysit a telco bill every single month anymore. It is a huge waste of time.
We decided it will be iPhone and iPhone only, for the security controls. Also, we decided on Visible for the annual rate plan as well as being a Verizon Sub MVNO.
We have the first line moved over now. It will take a few months to get us all moved. But, overall every one of these I have looked at, there is something nepharious going on with all of them. All of them.
Cricket, for example, steals your iPhone and the Android Flagship Pixel by Illegally locking the Unlocked bought direct from apple phones. Apple lets them, that’s on Apple. Cricket has no problem readily admitting they do this on chat, and no shame either. You buy a new phone to BYOD, you buy “Connect to any carrier later” and we will still lock it, because Apple said we could.
Streight up, they said this on chat. Now, I would have reported it but I cant because the FCC and FTC are closed. In the real world, this is called Theft of personal Property and could be prosecuted. In the mobile world, no one cares. So we can’t buy new iPhones direct from Apple and go to any ATT MVNO’s because they literally all do this. The reports for this are many and go back quite some years now.
However, ATT wont lock an unlocked iPhone if it is brought on BYOD. Perfectly fine. It’s only done through the MVNO’s they sub. Interesting.
Tmo MVNO’s will do the same thing, Metro for example, will lock you BYOD unlocked handset for 365 days. That you own, and bought under “Connect to Any Carrier Later” direct from Apple. Tmobile will lock your personal property up too, just for 40 days, because you know since you go MNO instead of MVNO then they just steal your property “for a little while”.
Tmo has a huge, and I mean Huge Account Takeover problem. Alot of the official reports I have read are from the US Dept of Justice involving the employees themselves. Apparently it’s very enticing for these sim swappers to get Tmobile employees onboard with stealing account subscribers personal information and selling it to sim swappers. So they are either not being paid enough or they have no moral compass and I don’t know which it is.
Of course Tmo has a solution for that, provided you are Postpaid, you can “subscribe” to “stop” an Account Takeover. For a Monthly Fee. How. Is that any different. From a Mobster on Main street saying they will protect your business from looters for a fee and then busting your business up at night while you are asleep because you decided not to subscribe? How. Is that any different? Are Tmobile now the head Gangsters of the Telco’s? Seems to be in line with what’s been reported and prosecuted under the DOJ papers, if only 1 opinion anyway.
So, Tmo and all of their MVNO’s at this point have no credibility for our family. Cannot be trusted, and cannot be considered as an option.
ATT has a huge problem with this as well, but seems their MVNO’s serve as the umbrella for this and ATT direct wears little of this ongoing debacle on their shirts in Post Paid.
Cricket Account Takeover and Account Suspensions for “Fraud” on users are plenty. Why? Are they the gangster Arm of ATT under the guise of poor little MVNO?
I don’t know, but reading through the DOJ lawsuit yesterday on Cricket 2024 that involves untold amount of accounts being phished and sold to whoever they were sold to, at the same time telling account holders they are suspended for fraud, seems to carry a similar tone to Tmo MVNO’s. Cricket can not claim “we didn’t know” they did know.
Verizon, has had a few lawsuits and prosecutions as well for the same thing, but seem to carry less of this by a margin that ATT and Tmo.
The MVNOs wether owned as subs or not, are all under the hand of the parent Telco these days. Subject to the Parent’s whims and directions.
In the case of USMobile, they get directed by all three telco parents. Think about that. For just a minute.
I for one, do not want 3 parents to worry about on the MVNO we choose. I only want one.
All the hype about MVNO’s, is mute now. I think they are the collection leg of the parent or parent(s) in some MVNO cases.
You either stay postpaid or we will punish you. You will either buy the phone from us, or we will make your BYOD device not work, You either buy your phone from us, and in the case of the iPhone, or we will steal it anyway. And, if you ever happen to get the FCC or FTC or BBB report done they might make us remove the “lock” but we are going to make you work for it. And after FCC forces us to unlock, we might even perform an Account Takeover on your behalf because we didn’t get the minimum we want to squeeze out from you.
What’s more, many people report, that this happens over and over again. So first use, BYOD unlocked from Apple, carrier locks it anyway. You get it unlocked full-fill your sub and move to another provider, they lock it again, then rinse and repeat. And Apparently, Apple Sanctions this. How wonderful of Apple to sell a carrier unlocked device at Full Price PIF, so it can be continually relocked with every carrier change. Thats wonderful.
On the Android side, it happens with most flagships I have read about, even flips BYOD. Metro locked our paid for 2021 flips that we bought used and unlocked..How nice of them. Into the trash heap another set goes when we finish moving to Visible.
Apple should have done better, they were the only Manufacturer that stood a chance of holding the line for buyers. Alas, there are no more.
At this time, Verizon and subs, will lock the handset for 2 months. I have not seen too many reports of them not auto unlocking. However they want to be done with this, they have been advocating to the FCC to not have to unlock handsets at all. They want to steal them indefinitely. Both if you sub in to Verizon and Verizon subs(MVNO’s) and if you buy from them. Either way they want to own your handsets outright and make you pay for them. And the plan.
In all of the BYOD cases of handset theft by carrier, the carrier should be forced to give the entire first year free, of their premium plan for every handset they auto lock to their network that was subscriber owned. Period. They want control through backdoors, they better pay up for the theft.
And for as long as they are incentivizing theft by sim swapping, they should be made, by law, to pay for the subscribers account indefinitely at 0.00$ until the matter is completely resolved in court. Complete with new handset and new # as form of compensation as well as paying for the premium Plan of every one of the accounts that suffer this, and paying for credit monitoring indefinitely for the life of the subscriber even after they leave the carrier.
That would go a long way to correcting these issues.
All the telcos continually lie in the ads. All of them. Here in the US, in the UK in Africa, in Australia, and so on. Lies compounded on lies. Nice moving pictures and feel good mantra, and then bait and switch and it’s done you are captured. Then they scream “Terms and Conditions” “See it’s right here, page 201, Section 4, Line 3…see it’s right here”. Only, it’s not. It’s internal for the most part, and only when one starts to rattle them do they produce this for you in chat “See it’s right here”
There is no where on Crickets website where they outright state “We will be taking control of your device for no less than 60 days when you port in no matter if you own it or not, no matter if you have owned it for 6 years or not, we will now own it” There is nothing that says this. Yet, they will admit to this freely if asked.
There is no where on Metro’s site where it says they will take your owned outright device and lock it to their network for 365 days. Just because.
The T and C’s say “Only phones bought from..” Metro, or Cricket, or Lyca Mobile or whatever…fall under the “locked to our network” thing. This is not true. Not even a little bit.
So when you say will there be any MVNO’s left, this is a good question, but in reality I think the entire idea of MVNO’s flew the coop long ago now. It’s not whether they are being bought up. Its more along the lines of who controls them. And what level of nefariousness are you willing to subscribe to in order to continue on with your life.
It’s not just the MVNO QCI and closeness to the parent, the farther out you go the more likely it is you wont be able to use service well or at all. Also, the *Plan* *Type* you choose also determines this as well.
So you go on a MVNO that is given *QCI Priority*–great but did you subscribe to the premium plan? yes? Ok you get a green light. No? Then you go to the back of the line behind the Post Paid roamers of other carriers as well as our own.
The less it costs upfront, the more it will cost your personally I think.
Apple sanctions this. Android sanctions this. The retailers sanction this. The FCC sanctions this, by not enforcing anything that would force correction of these practices.
So, for now, I think the best bet is something close to Verizon Parent, on the highest tier plan they offer, on an annual.
I think MVNO as a type of carrier, doesn’t exist anymore, if it really ever did.