That said, it’d definitely be interesting to see what Apple would offer in terms of pricing and other parts of its MVNO.
Advertisement
Sources close to Apple say the company is privately trialling an MVNO service in the US but is also in talks with telecoms companies in Europe about bringing the service there too. According to Business Insider, it could take Apple at least five years to ink deals with all the telecom companies and carriers in the U.S. and Europe before launching its MVNO to the public. The report cites telecom sources that seem to think the launch is inevitable, in which case there should be a lot more news on Apple’s plans over the next few years. It can then transcribe your voicemail and then display the text on your iPhone. Once Apple is taking money from customers for data and calls, customers will not have direct relationships with carriers. Once Apple launches iCloud Voicemail, you won’t have that problem, and will be free to sign up to Apple’s MVNO.
As an MVNO, Apple would lease capacity from existing wireless providers, rebrand the service as their own and sell it directly to consumers. This is actually a big clue revealing Apple’s intentions to start an MVNO. It has since filed to extend that patent. Apple has already spent years talking with carriers over an Apple mobile network. Project Fi uses a special SIM card inside the Nexus 6 to help the handset choose between the T-Mobile and Sprint network, depending on which one has the stronger signal at the moment. Most of us know that Apple is all about control and keeping things in its own ecosystem by doing things like keeping OS X and iOS on Macs and iPhones/iPads/iPod touches, so it’s no surprise to hear that the Cupertino firm is playing with the idea of offering its own MVNO. Right now it’s only available for the iPad Air 2 and iPad mini 3, but future versions of the SIM card could be used to launch an Apple MVNO for iPhones.
Advertisement
But not every MVNO is successful, however.
