US-based MVNO Freedompop has taken advantage of its partnership with pay-TV provider Dish to overtake its rivals in the highly-competitive Mexican MVNO sector, according to the latest quarterly report from The CIU. The country’s MVNOs accounted for 1.6 million active SIMs at the end of the third quarter of 2018, equivalent to 1.6 percent of the market, up 19.1 percent year on year. Freedompop topped the ranking with 24.5 percent of MVNO lines at the end of September, ahead of Grupo Elektra’s Oui Movil with 19.8 percent and Virgin Mobile with 18.7 percent. Qbo Cel, Flash Mobile and Weex followed with 11.3 percent, 10.7 percent and 9.3 percent of the market respectively.
Mexico had a total of 14 active MVNOs accounting for 1.78 million active SIMs at the end of the second quarter of 2018, according to a separate report from communications regulator IFT. The watchdog forecast at the time that the number of MVNO lines could increase by up to 44 percent to 2.56 million, or 2.2 percent of the market, by the end of 2019.
