With Microsoft’s own SIM card for contract-less cellular data in the works, it is speculated that Microsoft could form its own mobile virtual network to allow Windows 10 users to connect to its partner carriers.

But how are mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) services faring today and in the past?

Let’s take a look at major players in the scene, where companies obtain “wholesale access” from carriers such as Verizon, Sprint and T-Mobile, and then sell plans to their own customer base.

Microsoft Trudging The MVNO Path?

The Windows Store has published the Cellular Data app, which allows users to connect to a nationwide mobile data network using only a Microsoft account. The app is said to be designed to work solely with select Windows 10 devices through a Microsoft SIM card.

But the company is yet to reveals plans for the SIM card launch, including markets it will cover and cellular data pricing.

“Connect with – and pay for – a mobile data plan on your Windows 10 device using only your Microsoft account information. That means no fixed contract and no long term commitments to a mobile network operator,” states the app page, highlighting mobile data “at your own convenience.”

Whether Microsoft will take the MVNO direction is expected to unfold in the coming days.

Apple Quashes Rumors

In mid-2015, Apple was reported to be working on a mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) service in the United States and Europe, a plan that the company denied.

By being an MVNO, Apple can sell services including data, texts and calls directly to customers, leasing space from established carriers. Here, customers will pay Apple directly for such services as the company’s SIM switches between carries for the best coverage.

An Apple MVNO has been in the rumor mill for years now, with Apple allegedly filing a patent as early as 2006 for an MVNO service. CTIA’s former chair John Stanton even recalled Apple founder Steve Jobs’ ambition to replace carriers.

“He and I spent a lot of time talking about whether synthetically you could create a carrier using Wi-Fi spectrum. That was part of his vision,” Stanton said.

Google’s Project Fi

Google already tested its own MVNO, as heralded by the availability of Project Fi for the Nexus 6 smartphone in the U.S. This move signals the tech firm’s treatment of MVNO as a likely area for future development.

In this tri-band and data service, users pay only for what they use. Project Fi also touts seamless LTE networks and Wi-Fi connection.

Google is believed to have hit two birds with one stone in October last year with the simultaneous launch of the MVNO service and the promotion of its flagship Nexus 5X and 6P, the only smartphone models that Project Fi will work with, aside from the Nexus 6.

Major Flops

Not all MVNOs succeed, though, with the landscape said to be “littered with the corpses of high-profile players who couldn’t make a go of it,” according to a 2012 analysis by GigaOm Research.

Companies such as ESPN, Disney and Amp’d Mobile, to name a few, ventured into the MVNO business and spent vast amounts of money only to take a step back.

The survivors: smaller, prepaid actors who get by on “razor-thin margins” produced by servicing second- or third-rate handsets.

With the tech boom setting the stage for these big companies to grow, innovateand continue to outdo one another, it is likely only a matter of time for all of them to take the MVNO route – and witness their own victory or loss in the arena.

Photo: Kārlis Dambrāns | Flickr