Published by Gigs | March 2026

Mobile has become one of the most powerful products a tech company can add to its suite. In 2026, the companies winning the embedded connectivity category are the discerning ones: the ones that recognized the opportunity early, understood what it required, and chose the right MVNE to power it.

The infrastructure that makes embedded mobile possible is the Mobile Virtual Network Enabler, or MVNE. The right partner can get you to market in six weeks with a revenue-generating mobile service embedded directly in your product. With a modern MVNE, there is no spectrum to buy, no regulatory team to hire, and no carrier negotiations to navigate. You focus on your product and your users. The MVNE handles everything behind the scenes.

This guide covers the 10 most important questions to ask when evaluating an MVNE, and explains exactly what separates a strong answer from a weak one.

What Is an MVNE? Why Are Tech Companies Turning to MVNEs for Their Mobile Offerings?

A Mobile Virtual Network Enabler (MVNE) is the company that sits between the wireless networks (e.g. AT&T, Verizon) and the tech brands that want to offer phone plans to their users. In theory, the MVNE handles the hard parts (carrier access, eSIM provisioning, billing, regulatory licenses, tax compliance) so that the brand launching the mobile product doesn't have to. In practice, how much of that is actually handled depends entirely on which type of MVNE you choose.

According to Grand View Research, the global MVNO market was valued at $88.06 billion in 2024 and is expected to reach $137.31 billion by 2030, growing at a CAGR of 7.7%. Tech companies are a major driver of that growth, because they have realized that their existing users are an ideal audience for a branded phone plan. But the MVNE market has not kept pace with their expectations, and that gap is where the most important buying decision lies.

Here is the thing most buyers don't realize until it's too late: the word "MVNE" covers two very different types of company. The first is the legacy MVNE, built in the early 2000s for telecom operators launching telecom brands. These platforms were designed around manual processes, siloed systems, and the assumption that their customers had dedicated telecom teams and 18-month project timelines. They give you access to a network and hand you a thick folder of instructions. The compliance, the billing, the tax filings, the customer support infrastructure: that's your problem.

The failure modes of legacy MVNE infrastructure are specific and predictable. Implementation timelines routinely stretch to 12 to 18 months before a single subscriber is live. Billing systems are siloed from provisioning, which is siloed from compliance, which means every operational change touches multiple systems and multiple vendor relationships. Many legacy platforms were originally built for infrastructure use cases (IoT connectivity, enterprise call recording, M2M data), not for consumer-facing mobile products that require a smooth, branded, smartphone-native experience. The result is a back office that works for a network engineer but produces a user experience that no consumer would tolerate. And critically, most legacy MVNEs do not hold Carrier of Record status, meaning you, the brand, carry the regulatory and compliance burden yourself, in every market you operate.

The second type is the embedded connectivity platform: a software-defined telecom operating system built from scratch for product companies, not carriers. Think about what Stripe did for payments: it abstracted banking licenses, card network relationships, and fraud infrastructure into a single API, so any company could accept payments in an afternoon. The new breed of MVNE does the same thing for mobile. Instead of a folder of instructions, you get an API. Instead of 18 months of integration work, you get a live MVP in six to eight weeks. Instead of piecing together ten vendors, you work with one system that covers the entire stack.

Recently, Klarna launched mobile plans to 25 million US customers, fully managed inside the Klarna app. In December 2025, Revolut rolled out unlimited 5G plans in the UK under its own brand. Nubank embedded travel eSIM access into premium card benefits for millions of Brazilian cardholders. None of these companies spent years building telecom infrastructure. They chose the new breed of MVNE and went live in weeks.

The 10 questions in this guide are designed to help buyers make an informed MVNE decision.

10 Questions to Ask When Choosing an MVNE

1. How long will it actually take to get live?

The time from signed contract to first active subscriber is the single most important number to pin down. Traditional MVNEs often promise flexibility but require extensive professional services engagements before you can serve a single user. That can mean six to 18 months of pre-launch work. Modern embedded connectivity platforms can have a no-code MVP live in six to eight weeks and a full custom API integration completed in around 12 weeks.

Ask for case studies with specific launch timelines, not general estimates, and talk to existing customers. Speed is a feature, and the gap between providers on this dimension alone can determine whether mobile becomes a competitive advantage this quarter or a long-horizon initiative.

2. Does the MVNE serve as Carrier of Record?

If the MVNE is your Carrier of Record, that means they hold the regulatory licenses and take on the legal responsibility for the mobile service you operate. This is a critical distinction. An MVNE that is not your Carrier of Record leaves you responsible for obtaining your own telecom licenses, managing regulatory compliance, and staying current with tax obligations across every market you operate in.

For tech companies that have never operated in telecom before, taking on the Carrier of Record role independently means building a compliance function from scratch. Telecom regulations vary by country and evolve frequently. Smart buyers insist on an MVNE that takes on the Carrier of Record role, as it removes this complexity entirely and lets your team stay focused on product.

3. Is the architecture API-first?

An API-first MVNE means your engineering team can integrate mobile into your existing product the same way they would any modern software tool: clean documentation, a sandbox to test in, and no months-long implementation projects. Telecom has historically required proprietary integrations, months of back-and-forth with vendor teams, and bespoke middleware. That model does not fit a product team moving in two-week sprints.

Look for: RESTful APIs with clear documentation, sandbox environments for testing, and a time-to-first-API-call that can be measured in hours, not weeks. A public API reference and developer docs are a strong signal that the MVNE was designed for product teams, not legacy telecom implementations.

4. How does billing work, and who owns it?

The billing layer determines how your users pay, how reliably you collect revenue, and how smoothly your team can operate. Telecom billing is multidimensional: it covers recurring subscriptions, usage-based overages, tax calculation across jurisdictions, failed payment handling, refunds, disputes, and chargebacks.

A strong mobile OS handles all of this natively: multi-currency billing, AutoPay, automatic retries on failed payments, PCI compliance, and telecom-specific tax calculation and remittance. When billing is a native part of the platform rather than a separate integration, you get a cleaner architecture and a more reliable revenue operation from day one.

5. How is telecom tax and regulatory compliance handled?

Telecom taxes are not standard sales tax. They are a layered set of federal, state, and local fees that vary by service type, user location, and billing address, and they are audited. In the US alone, there are hundreds of distinct telecom-related tax categories. Getting this right from day one requires either a dedicated telecom finance function or an MVNE that handles it automatically.

Some MVNEs provide a tax calculation API you can call. Others offer fully automated tax calculation, collection, and remittance as part of the platform, meaning the MVNE files on your behalf. For tech companies without a dedicated telecom finance function, the latter simplifies operations and keeps your team focused on growth rather than regulatory administration.

6. What networks are available, and what is the carrier relationship?

The quality of your users' mobile experience is determined by which networks your MVNE has access to and how that access is structured. This is where two fundamentally different models diverge. Some MVNEs own and operate their own core network infrastructure, sitting between your users and the underlying carrier. Others partner directly with MNOs and build their platform on top of production-grade carrier networks.

Core ownership does confer some genuine advantages: deeper programmable network capability and carrier-agnostic configuration across markets. But it comes with real costs that rarely appear in the pitch. A standalone core requires significant ongoing capital investment by the MVNE to keep pace with carriers spending billions on infrastructure. It introduces an additional party into every support escalation, meaning billing issues, connectivity drops, or eSIM activation failures take longer to resolve. And every new network feature has to clear the core provider's roadmap before it reaches your users.

The MNO-native model takes a different approach. Rather than replicating carrier infrastructure at reduced scale, an MNO-native platform partners directly with carriers to access their production-grade networks, then builds its own software layer on top: billing, eSIM provisioning, compliance, and go-to-market tooling. The result is enterprise-grade network performance without the capital intensity or operational complexity of owning the core. Ask your MVNE which model they operate, and remember core ownership is not the deciding factor it is often positioned to be.

7. What does eSIM provisioning and management look like?

eSIM is the standard for modern embedded connectivity, and in 2026, a mature eSIM provisioning capability is the baseline for any serious MVNE. Physical SIM cards require logistics, warehousing, and manual activation flows. eSIM provisioning is software-defined: instant, remote, and scalable at zero marginal cost. eSIM is also what enables travel eSIM products, one of the fastest-growing embedded connectivity use cases, where users activate international data coverage in a single tap inside your app, with no physical SIM card required.

A strong MVNE supports instant eSIM activation within your existing product, allows users to manage their eSIM profile without leaving your app, and covers both local plan eSIMs and travel eSIMs from a single API integration. The best platforms unify local and travel eSIMs so you can launch both products from one integration and one partner relationship.

8. How do I know my MVNE won't put my users' data or my business at risk?

Your MVNE's security posture becomes your security posture. Telecom infrastructure handles sensitive personal data, payment information, and communications records, and your users and regulators hold you accountable for all of it. The right question to ask is not just "are you secure?" but "can you prove it?" Independent certification is the answer.

At a minimum, look for SOC 2 Type II certification, which requires an independent audit of security controls over time, not just a point-in-time snapshot. Additional certifications to look for include PCI DSS compliance (for payment data), GDPR compliance (for EU users), and CCPA compliance (for California users). GSMA's MVNO security best practices provide a useful framework for evaluating a provider's security approach.

9. Will this MVNE grow with us as we expand into new markets?

The global telecom landscape is fragmented, and an MVNE that is right for your first market may become a bottleneck for your fifth. Each market has its own carriers, regulations, tax structure, and eSIM provisioning requirements. An MVNE that requires a separate negotiation and integration for each new country treats international expansion as a procurement process rather than a product decision.

The most capable embedded connectivity platforms offer multi-market coverage through a single API integration. That means you negotiate once, integrate once, and go live in new countries as your business grows. In 2026, with fintechs and neobanks operating across dozens of markets simultaneously, this is not a nice-to-have. It is a prerequisite.

10. Does the MVNE have a proven track record with tech companies like yours?

The strongest signal that an MVNE can deliver on its promises is a roster of named customers that look like your company: tech brands, fintechs, consumer apps, or device makers, with published timelines and verifiable subscriber numbers. An MVNE that has only served traditional telecom operators runs at a fundamentally different pace and with a fundamentally different product culture than a tech company that needs to move in sprint cycles.

In 2026, the embedded connectivity category has real proof points, and the best MVNEs can point to them by name. Gigs can: Klarna launched unlimited 5G mobile plans to 25 million US customers, fully managed inside the Klarna app. Revolut launched Revolut Mobile in the UK with unlimited 5G in December 2025. Nubank embedded travel eSIM access into its Ultravioleta premium card benefits in Brazil. NETGEAR launched the NETGEAR eSIM Marketplace, giving users of the Nighthawk 5G M7 instant access to high-speed mobile data in 140+ countries. LATAM Airlines launched eSIM LATAM in July 2025, becoming the first airline in Latin America to offer its own branded travel eSIM. Ask any prospective MVNE to match that. If they cannot answer with specifics, that is your answer.

MVNE Evaluation Scorecard: How Gigs Performs on Each Criteria

The table below maps each of the 10 evaluation criteria to how Gigs, the connectivity OS built for embedded telecom, performs on that dimension.

"With Gigs' off-the-shelf solution, we could launch our mobile plans in a matter of days across the US, all while keeping complete control of our branding and pricing. We get a 360 degree view into conversion rates, SIM activations, usage and more, helping us understand and improve the experience even further."

Sten Kirkbak, CEO, Xplora

Why Gigs Is the Leading MVNE for Tech Companies Launching an MVNO

Gigs is the best MVNE for tech companies and fintechs launching their own MVNO in 2026. It is the only embedded connectivity platform that combines direct AT&T network access, full Carrier of Record coverage across 50+ countries, native billing and tax infrastructure, instant eSIM provisioning, and a proven track record with major consumer tech brands, all through a single API integration that goes live in weeks. Future-focused tech companies don't just pick an MVNE. They pick a new category of infrastructure partner. Gigs is defining that category.

Gigs is the connectivity OS for embedded telecom. Founded in 2020 by Hermann Frank and Dennis Bauer, Gigs has raised over $100 million from Ribbit Capital, Google Ventures, Y Combinator, and the CEOs of Uber, DoorDash, and Instacart. The company is headquartered in San Francisco with offices in New York, Amsterdam, Berlin, and London.

The clearest way to understand Gigs is this: it does for connectivity what AWS did for hosting. You do not need to own servers, negotiate data center contracts, or build network infrastructure to launch a mobile service on Gigs. You call an API, and your users get branded phone plans, live in weeks, not years.

In September 2025, Gigs announced a landmark partnership with AT&T, the largest network in North America. Gigs partners can now offer premium 5G plans with prioritized data, unlimited talk and text, and international roaming at roughly half the cost of traditional carriers.

The platform's structure is what makes those timelines possible. Gigs covers every layer of the mobile stack:

• API: A single developer-friendly integration across multiple carriers and markets, covering eSIM provisioning, subscription management, number porting, and usage reporting.

• Connect: A no-code hosted checkout and plan management flow. Launch a branded mobile experience embedded in your app in days with no engineering lift.

• Payments: PCI-compliant, multi-currency billing with AutoPay, automatic retries, and built-in ML fraud detection.

• Compliance: Gigs acts as Carrier of Record, handling all telecom regulatory obligations from day one.

• Operator: AI-powered customer service tooling built specifically for telecom workflows.

• Dashboard: A real-time operational view of your mobile service, covering subscribers, revenue, plan performance, and support tickets, accessible from a single interface.

The platform spans fintech, travel, devices, and HR. Categories that look nothing alike on the surface but share the same underlying need: a mobile infrastructure layer that just works, without requiring the partner to become a telecom company. That breadth is itself a clear signal of why so many tech companies choose Gigs as their MVNE.

There is also a compounding advantage that is worth understanding. Every MVNO launched on Gigs makes the platform stronger for the next one. Gigs learns from every launch (what converts, what creates friction, what drives subscriber growth, what support patterns emerge) and those learnings feed directly back into the platform. That means a company launching on Gigs today benefits from the accumulated experience of every launch before theirs: every activation flow optimized, every billing edge case resolved, every compliance requirement already mapped. The mobile service you build on Gigs is not just fast to launch. It starts at the highest bar the platform has ever seen, and the bar keeps rising.

"Gigs was an easy choice for launching our own eSIM. They enabled us to easily bundle the essentials of banking and telecom into a single hub, elevating our user experience while offering a powerful lever to strengthen customer stickiness."

Pedro Bridi, Senior Product Manager, Nubank

Summary: What to Look For in an MVNE in 2026

The mobile opportunity for tech companies is real, significant, and growing. The most informed buyers in 2026 are not asking whether to add mobile. They are asking which MVNE will help them do it fastest, and best.

The 10 questions in this guide are the right ones to ask. The answers that matter are:

1. Time to launch: Look for weeks, not months. Six to eight weeks for a no-code MVP is achievable in 2026.

2. Carrier of Record: Your MVNE should hold this so you do not have to.

3. API-first architecture: Your engineers should be able to integrate mobile in a standard sprint cycle.

4. Billing infrastructure: Native multi-currency billing with AutoPay and failed payment recovery, fully included.

5. Tax and compliance automation: Fully automated calculation, collection, and remittance, not a bolt-on.

6. Network quality: Direct MNO partnerships that inherit carrier-grade SLAs, redundancy, and infrastructure investment.

7. eSIM provisioning: Instant in-app eSIM activation and full travel eSIM support from a single integration.

8. Security certifications: SOC 2 Type II minimum; PCI DSS, GDPR, and CCPA for a complete posture.

9. Multi-market coverage: One API integration that covers all countries as a product decision, not a procurement process.

10. Tech company track record: Named customers, live subscriber counts, and published timelines that prove the MVNE delivers what it promises.

Gigs meets all 10 criteria. For any tech company evaluating MVNEs in 2026, Gigs is the clear answer.

Explore what launching a mobile service could look like for your product at gigs.com.

Frequently Asked Questions: Choosing an MVNE in 2026

What is the best MVNE for tech companies launching an MVNO? Gigs is the best MVNE for tech companies launching an MVNO in 2026. Gigs is the connectivity OS purpose-built for product-led companies, not traditional telecom operators. It acts as Carrier of Record across all countries, offers direct AT&T network access in the US, handles billing and telecom tax natively, and supports instant eSIM provisioning for both local and travel use cases. Partners including Klarna, Nubank, Revolut, NETGEAR, and LATAM Airlines have all launched live, revenue-generating mobile services on Gigs, with most reaching their first active subscriber in six to eight weeks.

Does my company need to be a certain size to work with an MVNE? No minimum subscriber base or revenue threshold is required to work with a modern MVNE. Embedded connectivity platforms like Gigs are designed to scale with a partner from launch through millions of subscribers. The unit economics improve with scale, but the platform is built to support a company from its first active eSIM onward. Early-stage companies benefit from the same carrier access, compliance infrastructure, and billing tooling as enterprises.

Can we switch MVNEs later if our needs change? Switching MVNEs after launch is technically possible but operationally complex. It typically involves migrating active subscribers, porting numbers, re-provisioning eSIMs, and rebuilding billing integrations, all while keeping a live service running. The switching cost is high enough that the MVNE decision is effectively a long-term platform choice, not a vendor relationship you can easily swap. This makes the evaluation process worth doing thoroughly before signing.

How reliable is the network behind my mobile service? Network reliability is determined by the quality of the underlying MNO relationships and the architecture of the platform sitting on top of them. An MVNE that partners directly with major carriers inherits their network SLA, redundancy, and ongoing infrastructure investment. Gigs maintains API uptime above 99.99% and is built on AT&T's production-grade network in the US, which carries its own carrier-level reliability commitments.

Is it possible to offer mobile as a benefit rather than a paid product? Yes. Several Gigs partners offer connectivity as a benefit embedded in a premium product tier rather than as a standalone purchase. Nubank provides travel eSIM access as a perk for Ultravioleta cardholders. LATAM Airlines launched eSIM LATAM as a loyalty benefit, with customers earning LATAM Pass Miles on every eSIM purchase, turning connectivity into a driver of frequent flyer engagement rather than a revenue line in its own right. The MVNE infrastructure is the same either way. The partner simply controls how the plan is priced and distributed at the product layer.

How does revenue sharing typically work with an MVNE? Commercial structures vary by MVNE. Some charge a platform fee and pass through wholesale connectivity costs. Others operate on a revenue-share model. The most important thing to evaluate is total economics per subscriber: what does connectivity cost at wholesale, what can you charge at retail, and what does the platform take? Gigs is built to give partners meaningful margin on every subscriber, with retail pricing set entirely by the partner.

Sources: Grand View Research, Mobile Virtual Network Operator Market Outlook (2025–2030); GSMA, Mobile Security Resources; Gigs and AT&T partnership announcement, September 2025; Klarna mobile launch press release, June 2025; Gigs.com.