Hi Jason, you were one of the most vocal MVNO speakers at the MVNO Industry Summit Asia recently. There was a sense of celebration that there is an event which showcases the role of MVNOs in a new market such as Malaysia - do you agree and do you think that this is an important step for the 'start up' successes of MVNOs in the APAC region?

Of course I do. It is a fantastic way to monetize excess capacity on an MNO's network as long as the MNO understands the strengths of an MVNO and loses the stigma of potential cannibalization. Out of the entire ASEAN region Malaysia is no doubt ahead in MVNO rollout and credit must go to Celcom who lead the charge as well as an efficient and fair handling of regulations by the MCMC. Tune Talk is very proud to be spearheading this rollout as the MVNO with the largest and fastest growing sub base of the group and as I said before, Celcom's investment has seen 7 figures grow into 9 figures in the space of only 2 years. This showcases the potential for this model and if handled right, will also lead to increased innovation and bring new and exciting services to customers.

In this sense then, MVNOs are no longer the 'ugly girl at the party but are getting sexier by the day' (as you put it) - do you think Asian MVNOs have a way to go to being perceived as sexy as MVNOs in mature markets by MNOS and customers alike?

Hahaha. I see you were listening. Thank you. :) That is a big question and it really depends on the MVNO and target segment as well as the current environment. It could be that the incumbents are branding themselves as attractive enough that penetration would be tough. (Sounds like a REAL party I know) so it really depends on the USP to the customer and the angle or story of what that MVNO is all about, it's brand, customer care experience, the whole package. Any brand should really stand for something so that it is immediately identifiable and aligned to the target segment.

At the event you mentioned the importance for MVNOs to have parity with competitors not just on price, but on network quality and services - what do you consider to the top 3 killer VAS for MVNOs to achieve this competitive edge in the Asian region?

Ah, the long and winding road of the long tail question! In this day and age thank god the onus is no longer on the service provider to shoot for that killer VAS, the burden has instead fallen to the device manufacturers. Bets are being placed on e banking or money remittance, seamless NFC integration and of course social networking. Do we want to be a smart dumb pipe or dumb smart pipe? I believe it's far more useful to focus on maintaining a high level of customer care servicing, strong management of SLA's and network quality. However, if you twist my arm and force me to spill the beans I'd have to choose 1 Loyalty points unique to that target segment, such as Tune Talk's(plug here..) Points for AirAsia flights which give the customer free flights points to any destination. This has positive effects on ARPU and churn and is unique to us. 2 CRBT's are still incredible earners and perhaps taken for granted as the search for the next big thing takes over. However, I strongly feel that an acute focus on this area and alignment with music, which has the highest recall of all media has beneficial effects on keeping the brand fresh and colourful. 3 NFC will take time to work out commercially, but the power of carrying around your bank on your phone will change the market forever. There is however, no clear leader in the field in terms of commercial and practical roll out of services. The technology is there but I wonder who will be the Google or paypal of NFC(Google or Paypal perhaps?), so it will take time before we really start seeing these services come online as it includes integration of various devices, terminals, regulatory changes and such. It is happenning though.

There was a lot of banter in the conference room between MVNOS and MNOs and clearly host operators are keen that their markets do not enter corrosive price wars which hit the Scandinavian markets in the first wave of EU MVNOs. Do you think MNOs need to lighten up a bit? If so, what advice would you have for an operator on the values to them on working with an MVNO?

I think it's far too simple to point the finger at MVNO's on this issue. You only have to look at India where the rates are 1/2 a Paisa to make a voice call or The Philippines where SMS margins have become super thin. These markets have no MVNO's and yet many say India successfully crashed in on themselves. I would say that with or without MVNO's the Scandinavian markets would have done the exact same thing because that's the dynamic of that market. Malaysians for instance, are less price sensitive so we have some of the highest call charges in the world. Malaysians don't empower themselves in understanding call charges and have been successfully confused by the incumbents in any case, whereas we can see that the Bangladeshi segment seems to move to price fluctuations en mass, hence margins are naturally tighter here because they actually empower themselves more by knowing what the market delivers to them quite accurately. So it really depends on the market dynamic case by case. Trust me, year on year the MNO's do enough on their own to lower rates and I believe MVNO's are often blamed because they are easy targets. I also think historically this has been proven if you look at India, Thailand and even Malaysia where MVNO's have only been around for a few years, while the disruptive movements over the last 10 years by the incumbents have cut margins twentyfold or more. That's innovation anyway.