Morenaa French startup that sells “de-Google” smartphones packed with its own flavor of Android is launching an own-brand mobile network as it throws its hat into the fast-growing mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) ring.
Murena Mobile, as the new service is called, is built on top of T-Mobile and is only available to customers in the US. Available plans range from 4GB data at $35/month to unlimited data, which costs $65, with unlimited calls and texts available across all sectors.
As TechCrunch reported this month, the MVNO space is red hot, with countless companies piggybacking off of large telcos to launch new mobile network brands that fundamentally differentiate themselves through branding that targets niche customer segments.
The driving force behind much of this growth is the availability of new technology that makes it easier to become an MVNO — this includes mobile virtual network enablement (MVNE) software that takes care of infrastructure like SIM provisioning, billing, user management, customer support, analytics and more. In addition, with the advent of eSIMit’s easier (and cheaper) to have a digital-only distribution strategy, as we saw with Sam Altman-backed Humane startup ‘Ai Pin’.
It is these advances that Murena takes full advantage of with its move to 84 billion dollars MVNO kingdom.
privacy boost
Murena was founded in 2018 and has developed its own operating system called /e/OS, which is built on the Android-based LineageOS fork. Users they can either install /e/OS themselves on supported devices or get it pre-installed on a handful smartphone sold by Murena — these include refurbished handsets like Google’s Pixel 5 and Fairphone.
Murena’s big step is privacy, with all the usual Google apps being replaced by open source alternatives or supposedly anti-tracking and privacy-focused software.
In addition to selling the phones themselves, Murena has so far sought to generate revenue through additional services such as cloud plans, which offer something like Google Workspace, with email and productivity tools that sync across devices. With Murena Mobile now entering the mix, it has another recurring revenue stream to lean on.
“This approach not only provides financial stability, but allows for better long-term planning for this service and other future plans,” said Murena’s chief executive officer (COO) Alexis Noettinger he told TechCrunch. “It’s also a great way for people who believe in our mission to contribute to our work, instead of going directly to a carrier they don’t care about.”
This is similar to the American minimalist phone maker Light, which has offered mobile designs for many years. Light recently switched to a new MVNE provider called Concerts, which bills itself as “Stripe for phone plans” — a plug-and-play platform that gives budding MVNOs everything they need through a single API. And it’s the gigs that will also fuel Murena’s foray into the MVNO world.
“For us, we can manage and help our subscribers if they need anything, all from a single dashboard – which makes our lives easy,” said Noetinger. “And for our customers, they can easily access their program and manage their subscription without any effort.”
Gig Dashboard Image credits: Concerts
That a European company will offer its new service only in the U.S. shows where it sees the biggest opportunity — especially in Murena’s core privacy-loving target market.
While Murena collects some personal information, including the customer’s email address, name, address and credit card information. they are known to sell this data to advertisers.
“We learned that signing up for a cell phone plan in the US can be quite complicated, even today — most of the time you have to go through a credit check, share your social security number, verify an ID, and so on,” Noetinger said. “So in the process of setting up your mobile plan, a lot of personal data is collected, without any real need, increasing the risk of being retargeted later or that data falling into the wrong hands. The less data shared the better.”
Murena also plans to bring its new mobile designs to Europe sometime in 2024, eventually supporting physical SIM cards — but for now, Murena Mobile is all about eSIM.
This actually highlights a flaw with Murena’s new mobile network offering — not all phones support the eSIM format, including some of the devices sells through its own online store. Additionally, customers cannot actually sign up for a Murena Mobile plan at the same time as purchasing one of the eSIM-enabled devices — they must complete that transaction separately.
“We know this is not ideal and we plan to improve it in 2024,” Noetinger added.
So today just marks the start of what Murena hopes will be part of a “package” that attracts new customers and keeps existing customers. And this could lead to further product bundling to make the Murena brand a stickier proposition.
“The main purpose of launching Murena as an MVNO is to provide a seamless and comprehensive solution for privacy-conscious individuals,” said Noetinger. “In the future, we could think of a complete package with phone, cloud plan and mobile plan all rolled into one monthly subscription.”
