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Peter Adderton on MobileX's path to disruption
Peter Adderton says his new prepaid offering, MobileX, will disrupt the market thanks in part to money-saving AI tools. He also thinks Dish-owned Boost unit should 'get out of retail' and cable should provide wholesale access.
At a Glance
- Why troubling market trends led Adderton to pursue a new, AI-assisted model with MobileX (00:50)
- Led by its new Walmart deal, MobileX plans to go 'fully commercial' in February (7:45)
- Adderton's advice to Dish-run Boost: 'Get out of retail' (16:40)
LAS VEGAS – CES 2024 – Following a soft launch last year, MobileX, Peter Adderton's new prepaid offering, is now just weeks away from a widescale rollout that will be fueled in part by the company's recently struck deal with Walmart.
MobileX is a new mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) that uses Verizon's mobile network. Adderton believes the startup is poised to challenge incumbents and disrupt the broader mobile sector with a platform that provides a pair of relatively inexpensive baseline plans along with customized, AI-assisted options that can help put customers on different money-saving plans based on their data usage patterns.
MobileX is meant to be "truly disruptive" and "put the power back into consumers," claims Adderton, who also founded Boost, the US prepaid service now in the hands of Dish Network. Adderton still runs Boost Mobile in Australia.
Speaking here at the annual CES gadget fest in Las Vegas, Adderton says he's also thinking globally. MobileX is in talks to introduce the brand in the UK and other parts of Europe, he explains, adding that this strategy will help the company pursue a "Global Gig" model that tosses traditional international roaming models aside by enabling customers to take their data plans with them as they travel abroad.
Here are some topics we cover in this wide-ranging interview:
Adderton discusses the challenging, early days of the mobile prepaid market and how current market trends led him to build MobileX (00:50)
How MobileX is using AI to help consumers understand their data and usage patterns, and save money each month by avoiding traditional unlimited plans they don't need (5:30)
An update on MobileX's plans to go 'fully commercial' in February following a soft launch in 2023 that signed up thousands of customers (7:45)
How Wi-Fi offload fits into MobileX's plans and why Adderton is urging regulators to require cable operators to make their Wi-Fi and fixed broadband networks available on a wholesale basis (12:05)
Additional details on how MobileX will tap into its Walmart relationship and other retail channels, including independent dealers, to market and sell its new prepaid offering (14:45)
Adderton's advice to Dish-run Boost: 'Get out of retail' (16:40)
Thoughts on why MobileX's business and cost model can work without a 'huge amount of customers' (19:30)
Adderton on why the MVNO business requires patience and why comparisons to Comcast's and Charter's rapid mobile subscriber growth have fueled misconceptions about the broader MVNO market (20:15)
Why Adderton believes MobileX can be competitive in the mobile device market, and why he thinks even Apple will need to alter its approach in mobile (22:55)
An update on MobileX's plans to reach into Europe and other markets and pursue a 'Global Gig' model that enables customers to take their data plans abroad and avoid traditional international roaming charges (25:00)
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