Sky is stepping up its game in the mobile sector: it is becoming a virtual network operator and will manage its own service offering
Sky Italia’s Chief Executive Andrea Duilio: “The new Sky Mobile is a key part of our growth strategy”
A quantum leap that isn’t about gigabytes, but rather about four letters: MVNO. Sky Italia is moving away from a mobile telephony offering in which it essentially acted as a reseller – using its own brand – of a ready-made package (provided by Fastweb) towards a model in which it will manage the service as a mobile virtual network operator.
This is the industrial component of the new Sky Mobile, which launches today using the Fastweb+Vodafone network. The media company aims to take greater control of the value chain and customer relations, making connectivity an increasingly integral part of its content offering.
For Sky, this marks another step forward following Sky Wifi and its entry into the mobile market ‘powered by Fastweb’. Now, following authorisation from the Mimit, the group is restructuring: it is becoming an MVNO, utilising the infrastructure of Fastweb+Vodafone (which is one of the four ‘infrastructure-based’ operators – also known as MNOs – alongside TIM, Wind Tre and Iliad). In doing so, the Comcast-owned media company is entering the mobile telephony market in this way; as of March – according to the latest figures from the AGCOM Observatory – MVNOs accounted for 12.8 per cent of all ‘human’ SIMs (79.9 million lines, to which are added 32.4 million machine-to-machine SIMs used for robotics, home automation and machine-to-machine communications in general). In this market, Fastweb+Vodafone leads the pack (25.2 per cent of SIMs), followed by Wind Tre (23.6 per cent), TIM (22.3 per cent) and Iliad (16.1 per cent). The leading MVNO is PostePay (5.6%) on the TIM network, followed by Coop Voce (3%) on the Fastweb+Vodafone network.
The shift to becoming a mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) represents a substantial change from a business perspective. Sky will be able to directly manage its offering, customer relations and commercial development, with greater control over distribution and the ability to create bundles combining TV, broadband and mobile services. In short, this means more direct control over the service. “The launch of the new Sky Mobile marks an important step in our growth strategy. As an MVNO, we can now offer solutions tailored to customers’ needs and favourable terms for those who have been with us for some time, building on the relationship we have cultivated over the years,” explains Andrea Duilio, Chief Executive of Sky Italia. For the group controlled by Comcast – the US giant whose core business lies in telecoms, alongside content – the key is the relationship: increasing the number of services used by each customer, extending their customer lifecycle and making it less likely that discontinuing a single product will lead to them leaving the ecosystem altogether.
The new Sky Mobile offers two 5G plans and bundle options with Sky Wi-Fi and Sky TV. Price: €7.90 per month. The bundle including TV, mobile and Wi-Fi will start at €35.90 per month for 18 months.
