According to MobileX founder Peter Adderton, the MVNO will commercially launch its services in the next week or two.

And although that's a slight delay from the company's original plans, Adderton said the wait will be worth it.

"We've got a very, very unique proposition," he told Light Reading. "It really is a game changer."

Adderton explained that his new MVNO, which will work on Verizon's network, will run on an AI-based platform that will be able to determine how much data customers will need, and then will only bill them for what they need. The result, he said, could be a dramatic reduction in customers' bills. For example, he said his own bill fell from around $100 per month to around $14 per month when he switched his personal mobile service onto the MobileX platform.

"It really is an intelligent, learning platform," he said.

MobileX launched its beta services in November, promising "fake" unlimited plans for those customers who want that kind of thing. Adderton said MobileX will continue to offer those plans in order to get customers through the door, but he said the company's real value proposition revolves around its ability to correctly predict how much data customers will need and then billing them for only that amount.

Getting it ready

Adderton has been touting his MobileX plans for more than two years. In the middle of last year he inked a $20 million reverse merger with Electro-Sensors, but he said that deal fell through as the overall economic situation in the US worsened amid rising inflation and threats of a recession. He said the transaction was not for capital but to position MobileX for mergers and acquisitions on a national and international stage, and he still expects to pursue those kinds of deals at some point.

Broadly, he said the lengthy MobileX gestation period was necessary. "It just wasn't ready for primetime," he said of the service last year. "We've done a lot of work over and above what I thought we would have to do to make this work."

But now, he said, MobileX is ready for a commercial launch. He said the company will sell its services online initially via eSIM and physical SIM cards, and would then expand into retail stores through dealers at some later date.

"That's something that we're working through," he said of the dealer channel. "I think we can show them a unique model."

Adderton also hinted at a planned marketing campaign that will use celebrities, but he declined to provide details.

Adderton founded Boost Mobile in Australia in 2000 and then sold the US business to Nextel. He also fronted Amp'd Mobile, which filed for bankruptcy in 2007. He still operates a Boost-branded wireless business in Australia from his home in California.

His new MVNO is entering the US market at a noteworthy time. Comcast, Charter and other companies are increasingly shifting into the wireless space with their own MVNO offerings. Meanwhile, MVNO Mint Mobile, backed by actor Ryan Reynolds, is reported to be up for sale.

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— Mike Dano, Editorial Director, 5G & Mobile Strategies, Light Reading | @mikeddano