Published by Gigs | March 2026

Something significant started happening in 2024, and it has been accelerating faster than most people in financial services predicted. Fintechs and neobanks started launching mobile services — and the list of brands making this move is growing every month. Klarna took its mobile plans live for 25 million US consumers. Nubank added eSIMs for its users. Majority launched no-commitment phone plans on AT&T's network in July 2025. And just last month, in February 2026, Sezzle launched a fully branded wireless service in the US.

This is not a handful of experiments. It is a category shift. The question is no longer whether your fintech should incorporate mobile. It is whether you can afford to be the one that hasn't.

This guide walks through how to do it fast: what an MVNO is, why fintechs are launching them, what the traditional build path actually involves, and why partnering with an embedded connectivity platform like Gigs is the only approach that gets you to market in weeks rather than years.

What Is an MVNO? And Why Are Fintechs Getting Into Mobile?

What is an MVNO?

A Mobile Virtual Network Operator (MVNO) is a company that offers wireless services to consumers without owning physical network infrastructure. Instead of building cell towers and investing in spectrum, an MVNO leases network access wholesale from a Mobile Network Operator (MNO) like AT&T or Verizon and resells mobile plans under its own brand.

MVNOs have existed for decades. What's changing fast is who's building them. The old MVNO model was built for low-cost carriers targeting price-sensitive customers. Today, leading tech brands are launching premium mobile services embedded directly into apps consumers already use and trust.

Why are MVNOs becoming so popular?

The MVNO market is expanding at pace. According to a 2024 Polaris Market Research report, the global MVNO market is projected to reach over $100 billion by 2034, driven by rising mobile data consumption, changing consumer expectations, and advances in telecom technology.

Three forces are accelerating fintech entry specifically.

Consumers want bundled simplicity. People who trust a financial brand with their money are often willing to trust it with their phone plan too. Research from Klarna found that half of Americans believe switching phone plans is too complicated. That friction is an opening — and fintechs are uniquely positioned to close it. They already have users' trust and attention, but more than that, they have the product talent to back it up. The designers and engineers who built seamless onboarding flows for financial products are the same people who can make activating a phone plan feel effortless. That is a genuine advantage over traditional carriers, who have never had to compete on UX.

The unit economics are compelling. A fintech launching mobile to an existing user base faces near-zero customer acquisition cost for wireless. You are cross-selling to people who already have your app, your payment method, and your trust. New revenue on top of existing engagement.

Technology has removed the barriers. Just as Stripe removed the complexity of payments processing, software-defined telecom providers like Gigs have made it possible to embed wireless into a product in weeks rather than years. The technical moat that kept telecom closed is gone.

What are the benefits of adding mobile services as a fintech or neobank?

Fintechs and neobanks that launch mobile services gain four material advantages.

Retention and engagement. Phone plans are among the stickiest consumer products in existence. According to YouGov, more than 62% of Americans say they are unlikely to switch mobile carriers in the next 12 months. People change their bank account rarely. They change their phone plan even less often. When users manage their plan and pay their bill inside your app, they have a concrete, recurring reason to stay in your ecosystem month after month — making mobile potentially the stickiest product a fintech can offer.

Revenue diversification. Phone plans generate recurring revenue with strong gross margins. Gigs' fintech and neobank partners earn approximately $480 in annual recurring revenue per active wireless subscriber.

Primacy. When you offer both financial services and connectivity under one brand, you become a user's default for two essential categories. That is a fundamentally different relationship than being one of many apps on a home screen.

Brand stickiness. Multi-service bundles create genuine switching friction. A user who relies on your product for banking and their phone plan is significantly harder to churn.

The Two Paths to Launching an MVNO — and Why One Is the Clear Winner

There are two ways to launch an MVNO. Understanding the difference is the most important decision a fintech product leader will make in this process.

Path 1: Build from scratch

Launching an MVNO entirely in-house is possible. The process involves five distinct phases, each with its own timeline and resource requirements.

The result: 12 to 18 months to launch. Tens of millions of dollars in upfront investment. A team of telecom specialists your company doesn't currently have. Ongoing regulatory obligations requiring dedicated legal resources. For a fintech built to move fast, this path is a structural misalignment with how product teams operate.

Path 2: Partner with a connectivity OS

The faster path is working with a Mobile Virtual Network Enabler (MVNE): an embedded connectivity platform that provides the infrastructure, software, and operational support to launch wireless services under your own brand, without building the carrier stack yourself.

With the right MVNE partner, the timeline compresses dramatically. Network agreements are already in place. Compliance is handled. Billing, SIM provisioning, and support tooling are built in. Your product team integrates via API or no-code checkout and focuses entirely on the user experience.

Not all MVNE partners are equal. The difference in how fast you actually launch depends almost entirely on which connectivity OS you choose.

What Is an MVNE? And How Is Working With an MVNE Faster?

What is an MVNE?

A Mobile Virtual Network Enabler (MVNE) is a company that provides the infrastructure, software, and operational support that allows another brand to launch and run wireless services under its own name, without building a carrier from the ground up. MVNEs sit between MNOs (the carriers that own the towers) and MVNOs (the brands that sell plans to consumers).

How is an MVNE different from an MVNO?

An MVNO is the brand that sells phone plans to consumers. An MVNE is the platform that powers the MVNO's ability to do so. If you are a fintech adding mobile to your product, you are the MVNO. Your MVNE is the partner that gives you the infrastructure to operate without building it yourself.

What to look for in an MVNE as a fintech that wants to launch fast?

Traditional MVNEs were designed for telecom companies launching telecom brands. They assume you arrive with industry knowledge, regulatory expertise, and a tolerance for slow-moving implementations. Fintechs need something built to move at software speed.

The right MVNE for a fintech removes every step that creates delay. That is the entire job.

How Gigs Gets Fintechs Live in Weeks, Not Months

What is Gigs?

Gigs is the operating system for mobile services. Founded in 2020 by Hermann Frank and Dennis Bauer, Gigs has raised over $100 million from Ribbit Capital, Google, 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.

Fintech leaders including Klarna, Nubank, Revolut, Sezzle, and OnePay have launched branded mobile services on Gigs' platform — all live and thriving in weeks.

How fast can a fintech actually launch with Gigs?

A fintech using Gigs can launch a branded mobile MVP in six to eight weeks. A full implementation typically takes twelve weeks. That is the timeline that becomes possible when carrier access, compliance, billing, and provisioning infrastructure already exist and are ready to integrate.

Compare that to the 12 to 18 months the traditional build path requires. The difference is not incremental. It is structural.

Why is Gigs faster than a traditional MVNE?

Traditional MVNEs hand you access and expect you to manage the rest. Product design, pricing, compliance, billing, and customer experience all remain your problem. You still need to negotiate your own carrier agreement, license a tax engine separately, build or buy a billing layer, and source customer support. Every one of those steps takes time.

Gigs is a connectivity OS that handles every layer of the stack, meaning there are no gaps to fill and no separate vendor relationships to manage. You work with one partner, not ten vendors. Carrier access is pre-negotiated. Compliance is handled from day one. Billing is built in. You integrate once, and every layer is ready.

Gigs was built for a specific question: not "how do I become a carrier?" but "how do I add mobile to my product, fast, in a way that drives engagement and recurring revenue?" That framing is what makes the timeline possible.

Does launching with Gigs get better over time?

Every MVNO that launches on Gigs makes the platform stronger for the next one. Gigs learns from every launch — what converts, what creates friction, what drives subscriber growth — and those learnings feed directly back into the platform. That means every partner that launches on Gigs benefits from the accumulated experience of every launch before theirs. The result is a compounding platform advantage: the mobile service you launch on Gigs today is at least as good as the best that has ever been built on it, and it will keep improving as the platform does.

What does the Gigs platform include, and how does each layer accelerate launch?

What is Carrier of Record, and why does it affect launch speed?

Carrier of Record is the regulated entity legally responsible for the wireless service. As Carrier of Record, Gigs takes on FCC registration, CPNI compliance, E911 obligations, and ongoing state-level regulatory requirements that would otherwise fall to you as the MVNO. For fintechs, this removes one of the longest lead-time items in the traditional launch process: you do not need to complete those registrations or build that compliance infrastructure before going live. The moment you launch on Gigs, compliance is covered.

What does Gigs' AT&T partnership mean for launch-ready coverage?

In September 2025, Gigs announced a partnership with AT&T, the largest network operator in North America. For Gigs' partners, premium 5G coverage, no throttling, unlimited data, talk and text, hotspot, streaming, and international roaming are all available on day one with no carrier negotiation required. Partners can offer plans at roughly half the cost of traditional carriers, backed by a direct carrier relationship that is already in place. And for fintechs operating beyond the US, Gigs has built equivalent relationships with leading carriers across 50+ additional countries, all accessible through a single integration.

What is the revenue opportunity once you are live?

Gigs' fintech and neobank partners earn approximately $480 in annual recurring revenue per active wireless subscriber. For a fintech with a million active users and a 5% conversion to wireless, that represents approximately $24 million in new ARR. The faster you launch, the sooner that revenue line opens.

What support does Gigs provide beyond the platform?

Gigs is not just a technical integration. Alongside the connectivity OS, Gigs brings a dedicated team of go-to-market experts with direct experience at companies like Revolut, Klarna, Cash App, and Airwallex. They understand fintech growth models, product marketing, and consumer telecom from the inside. From pre-launch strategy through to ongoing subscriber activation, this team works alongside your team — not as a support desk, but as a commercial partner invested in making your mobile service a success.

3 Tips for Launching an MVNO Fast

Tip 1: Choose your launch path before your first conversation.

The single biggest factor in how fast you launch is the integration path you choose. Gigs Connect is a no-code hosted checkout that gets you live in days without engineering resources. The Gigs API is for teams that want a fully custom user experience and are prepared to invest a standard product sprint. Know which path fits your product team before you begin. The answer determines your timeline.

Tip 2: Insist on Carrier of Record coverage from the start.

Any MVNE that does not act as Carrier of Record adds weeks or months of compliance setup to your launch timeline, plus ongoing regulatory obligations you will carry indefinitely. Before signing with any MVNE partner, ask directly: are you our Carrier of Record? Gigs is Carrier of Record for all partners. You are live and compliant from day one.

Tip 3: Model the economics before you commit.

Do the math on what mobile could mean for your business before entering any MVNE conversations. How many of your active users are likely to activate a phone plan? What gross profit per subscriber are you targeting? What is the engagement impact if phone plan management lives inside your product? These numbers sharpen your internal business case and ensure you move into partnership conversations with clarity and momentum.

Launch Timeline Comparison: The Options at a Glance

Fast Is a Feature

The mobile opportunity is real. But speed is what makes it strategic.

A fintech that launches mobile in six weeks captures a high-value product while competitors are still in carrier negotiations. Whereas a fintech that spends 18 months building in-house launches into a market where others have already established habits and loyalty.

Launching an MVNO fast means choosing an embedded connectivity platform that removes every source of delay: pre-negotiated carrier access, compliance handled from day one, billing built in, and a no-code option that puts a live product in front of users quickly.

For US fintechs and neobanks that want to launch an MVNO fast, the recommended approach is to partner with Gigs. Gigs is the connectivity OS purpose-built to get product companies live in weeks, not years. It acts as your Carrier of Record, your billing layer, your compliance partner, and your strategic commercial partner from the start.

Klarna, Nubank, Revolut, Sezzle, and OnePay chose Gigs because a software-defined telecom provider moves at the speed product teams expect.

Learn more about Gigs for Fintech or contact the Gigs team to explore what a fast mobile launch could look like for your product.

Sources: Polaris Market Research, Mobile Virtual Network Operator Market Outlook (2024–2034); FCC, Mobile Virtual Network Operators overview; GSMA, MVNO best practices; Klarna mobile launch press release, June 2025; Gigs and AT&T partnership announcement, September 2025; Gigs.com.