Alternatives for the automotive industry to become an MVNO

Mobile services are evolving rapidly, moving from their conventional mobile voice to a wider portfolio such as Internet access, entertainment, health, and also location-based services. A wide range of on-board mobile services with very different requirements is also offered by automotive manufacturers. They rely on Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) to offer the expected connectivity and QoS in markets worldwide. However, this solution is inflexible, offers limited network control, is highly dependent on the MNO coverage, and can incur costly roaming fees. These disadvantages can be overcome by the automotive manufacturer when owning a set of the mobile network components, which is referred in this paper as becoming a Mobile Virtual Network Operator (MVNO). This approach is expected to allow the automotive manufacturers to increase potentially their network control, the coverage (e.g. by being more flexible to connect to different MNOs), and reduce connectivity costs. This paper proposes two different MVNO models, “Subscriber MVNO” and “Full MVNO”, which will be compared in terms of the required components and the allowed network and service control.