New Delhi, Apr 7: Country's leading telecom service provider Bharti Airtel today said Mobile Virtual Network Operators (MVNOs) services, where a operator does not own infrastructure or spectrum but takes it on lease from existing operator, will not be successful in the country. ''I don't think MVNOs can succeed at the current rates in the country,'' Bharti Enterprises CMD Sunil Bharti Mittal told reporters here. The government last week had allowed sharing of physical infrastructure among telecom service providers, a year after Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) recommended sharing of infrastructure (both passive and active).

This move could pave the way for MVNOs services amd many multinational companies are expected to enter the country through the MVNO route as availability of spectrum is a constraint in the country. Currently, MVNOs are not yet permitted in the country, though telecom regulator TRAI has recommended that it be allowed. As a result, Virgin Mobile, which is the world's first MVNO, introduced its services in India as a franchisee of Tata Teleservices. A MVNO does not maintain its own network and instead has contracts to use the existing networks of other providers on which it offers services by buying bulk airtime from mobile operators and reselling it as a packaged plan under its own branding.

UNI