Messaging in South Africa

MVNO is an addition to a regular telecom operator, which is a different on the same physical network.

The biggest difference between the different MVNOs is that they don’t have their own dedicated base stations, cell towers, or transmitters.

There are 2 different types of MVNOs: independent networks with their own network code and call routing, or a network with only a base operator SIM card with a different design.

MVNOs have their own autonomous network for sending shorter messages (including RCS and SMS), and utilize their operator’s parent network.

Users usually don’t understand the difference between MVNO and the main operator brands – they just compare the rates.

MVNO tariffs are very profitable locally, but even more expensive are the roaming tariffs that are pricier than the parent operator.

MVNOs also change brands a lot, and in the column of the “Other Names” table you’ll see the prior names of the virtual operator (if there are any).

Sometimes the operator purchases a MVNO company based solely on its network. They then merge their own brand with this new one they’ve purchased. When this happens, the MVNO no longer exists as a separator operator, and a brand-new entry is added to the MCCMNC networks that the operator has.