Digital bank company Monzo wants to launch a UK mobile service.
As reported by the Financial Times, challenger bank Monzo is in the early stages of exploring a move into the mobile game.
The company wants to diversify its revenues away from its core banking services, reports the FT, which said Monzo would launch a digital SIM service, offering monthly contracts.
“When we heard from our customers that mobile contracts can be a pain point, we set out to explore how we could do this the Monzo way,” said Monzo to the publication.
It comes a few months after rival fintech company Revolut outlined plans to launch MVNO (mobile virtual network operator) services in the UK and Europe, while Klarna has also revealed ambitions to launch MVNO services.
MVNOs are alternative networks that often offer more niche contracts to traditional mobile operators. They don’t own the infrastructure that they use, relying instead on incumbent operators.
Octopus Group, best known for providing energy services, is also lining up a move into the MVNO market.
Monzo is also likely to offer MVNO services, meaning it will provide mobile services via another operator’s mobile network. In the UK, this will be either EE, VodafoneThree, or Virgin Media O2.
Uswitch estimates that MVNOs account for more than 10 percent of all mobile users globally.
There appears to be a growing demand for MVNO services, according to Enders Analysis, which said that MVNOs in the UK last year added 1.6 million customers. Meanwhile, the traditional four operators collectively lost 180,000 subscribers in the same period.
Read the orginal article: https://www.datacenterdynamics.com/en/news/monzo-plans-to-launch-uk-mobile-service-report/