Operators in developed markets face the challenges of high user expectations, data hungry applications, and highly competitive pricing and regulatory regimes. Over-the-top players are relentlessly innovative at redefining telephony. Mobile operators risk losing voice and data revenue and the billing relationship with subscribers. With smartphones and tablets changing the market, providing Internet-centric applications of value to users is the way out.

Over 1 billion people own 2 or more SIM cards, 500 million own 2 or more phones and over 200 million own 3 or more SIMs[1]. People own multiple SIMs because they have acquired different mobile identities, across networks and countries. Users have multiple devices (BlackBerry for corporate use, iPhone for personal use) or multiple locations or countries where they spend time. Currently, people use a local SIM card for lower cost and for a local number.

The situation is not ideal for operators (lost revenue), enterprises (headache of managing security) or users. Movirtu enables service providers to offer business users and enterprises richer and more personalised services by separating the identity from the SIM card and handling identity management in the telco cloud.  For example, users can manage personal, business and social media personas on a single device, manage a single identity across multiple devices at the same time, or obtain local numbers while roaming without the need for an additional SIM.

[1] Source: Tomi T. Ahonen