Finland's Alekstra is quietly building the first Global Virtual Network Operator | Hacker News Reader

Finland's Alekstra is quietly building the first Global Virtual Network Operator

arcticstartup.com

44 pointsregandersong9 comments

Alexstra [sic] has positioned themselves to get acquired in the next 24 months ... without an acquisition Alekstra plans on running an IPO and becoming a stand-alone operator by the first half of 2014, offering services to both business customers and consumers.

So "disrupting the global wireless industry" (as the article proclaims in both its headline and its lede) is Alekstra's backup plan?

Reading both the article and the company's website, I am concerned about Alekstra's chances:

- their website does not contain clear information about who they are and what they do

- the article seems to suggest that they help companies lower their mobile bills, which seems significantly different than becoming a virtual network operator

- the article claims that they have several companies as customers, including McDonald's. Looking at the references page of Alekstra's website, this seems to be McDonald's Oy, McD's Finnish subsidiary.

Looking at an earlier article by Bloomberg - http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-03-02/alekstra-plans-to-s... - it looks like Alekstra hopes to make money by lowering roaming charges on international calls by routing them through their own network. This is vastly different from lowering the price of domestic calling and data, which (at least in the United States) I think most consumers care about.

...while the incumbent finn is stuck with an alliance with ms skype, this finn complains about operators' dominance for example telesonera's billing of skype. no comments.

the article seems to suggest that they help companies lower their mobile bills, which seems significantly different than becoming a virtual network operator

The article also suggests that the biggest obstacle to becoming a global virtual network operator is plugging into the billing systems of (non-virtual) operators. If Alekstra has already covered that for their current business of lowering mobile bills, that means they have a big advantage.

It's about time someone disrupted things like roaming charges. There is no reason why data traffic should suddenly get expensive just because I'm in a different country to usual. I wish them every success!

I wish them success as well, but I don't except speedy results...

How did this hype piece not linking to a single piece of code or demonstration of a future product get onto the front page of Hacker News?

I wonder what the verizons around the world are going to do to prevent this. More lobbying dollars?

Well, the could refuse to resell access to their network, and hope that all of their competitors do likewise.

But that risks either one of their competitors doing the selling (and then they lose custom to that competitor), or being sued for cartel behaviour if all of the companies do likewise.

This is what I don't get it...The people who actually own the physical copper/fiber that makes communications work will always have the control. What is this company doing that gets around that?

Reply on news.ycombinator.com