What About An Enterprise MVNO?

Daniel Taylor over at the Mobile Enterprise Weblog questions if 2007 will be the year of the enterprise MVNO.The enterprise MVNO -- that's mobile virtual network operator for those of you not versed in wireless market telecomspeak -- promises to solve many of the problems faced by enterprise IT markets looking to expand their mobile options, including better service and customer support, the ability to manage mobile users, and the expertise to integrate mobile data with an existing desktop infrastructure.

The promise of the enterprise MVNO has been around for a long time and many industry insiders on both sides of the aisle have long argued that the lack of this kind of service has hampered the growth of this market.

While I agree that there is a market for an enterprise MVNO, I am not convinced this market will be won by either a startup offered by one of the existing carriers or by a new entrant. When I begin to think about what an enterprise MVNO should do -- improve service, help IT departments with new applications, managing users, support -- this sounds more like the domain of a systems integrator than that of a telecom service re-seller.

I think this a market that will likely be captured by either a large- or medium-sized integrator. SIs already have the expertise on how to work with enterprise IT departments and most have relationships with large corporations, making them better equipped to handle these issues.

As an IT professional, who would you rather deal with: a telecom of an integrator?