Do they own the enodeBs or the RAN? How many hops does it take to get to their core? Not sure how MVNO works maybe they have encrypted VLANs to their systems. Not a RAN guy.
The primary difference is we run our own mobile core entirely.
Can you elaborate on the hops question? Not sure I quite understand what you're asking since there are a few ways to interpret "hops".
I've talked to a few tangentially and it seems like an interesting space.