Telecommunications

What I work on in connectivity

Activation, plans, rating, billing and partner integrations on an MVNO platform. Not radio, spectrum or core network — the layer above them.

Manuel Benancio 2 min
What we buy to be a telco, and what we build around it Four strata, drawn to scale. At the bottom, in a broken outline and no weight, another operator's radio network, which is not ours. Above it, in a broken outline, the MVNE platform we buy: everything needed to be a telco, and a supplier like any other, which is why its edge is drawn as detachable. Above that, and by far the tallest block, filled solid: what my team builds — the cloud platforms our products are built on, the applications each brand sells, and per-brand infrastructure rather than a flag in one install. At the top, outlined, the businesses selling under their own brand and their subscribers. A rule down the left side runs from the brands to the floor of the built layer and stops there: the brands never reach the supplier, which is what lets the supplier be replaced without asking them to wait. WHO SELLS IT Businesses, under their own brand — and their subscribers WE BUILD Cloud platforms our products are built on The applications each brand actually sells Per-brand infrastructure not a flag in one install It changes without stopping and it is what lets the layer underneath be replaced WE BUY An MVNE platform — everything needed to be a telco a supplier, and suppliers get replaced NEITHER Another operator's radio network — spectrum, RAN, core kembec.com

Being a telco is something you can buy. The business on top of it is not, and that gap is the whole job.

Text equivalent. Four strata, bottom to top. Another operator's radio network — spectrum, RAN, core — which is nobody's on my side. Then the MVNE platform we buy, which supplies everything needed to be a telco and is a supplier like any other. Then, and this is the part my team builds, the cloud platforms our products are built on, the applications each brand sells, and infrastructure held separately per brand rather than as a flag inside one installation. At the top, the businesses selling under their own brand and their subscribers. The built layer is what makes the bought one replaceable: the brands never deal with the supplier directly, so a supplier can change without them being asked to wait.

Diagram: kembec.com/domains/telecom

I have been CTO at Guinea Mobile since 2024. Other companies use our platform to offer mobile service under their own brand. We work with those companies rather than directly with their subscribers.

The vocabulary, briefly

An MVNO (mobile virtual network operator) sells mobile service using another operator’s radio network. An MVNE (enabler) supplies the platform an MVNO runs on: provisioning, subscriber management, billing, integration with the host network. An MVNA (aggregator) buys wholesale capacity in volume and resells it to smaller MVNOs.

The distinction is commercial as much as technical. The enabler position is the one where the product is a platform and the customer is a business.

The part of the system I lead

  • Provisioning and activation. Getting a SIM or eSIM from ordered to working, and what happens when a step in that chain fails.
  • Subscriber and plan management. What a plan allows, and what changing one mid-cycle does downstream.
  • Rating and billing. What a call, a megabyte or a plan change costs, and reconciling that against what the host network charges us.
  • Partner integrations. The interfaces with the host network and with the businesses reselling on us. Each one is a versioned contract.
  • Daily operation. Retries, edge cases, and reconciling drift when a partner changes something on their side.
  • The teams and the technology decisions behind all of it.

Parts of this are regulated: billing accuracy, number portability, identity verification, data retention.

What I do not do

I am not a radio network engineer. I do not work on spectrum, RAN, or core network internals. My work sits at the platform and product layer above them.

Sources

  1. First-hand: CTO at Guinea Mobile, an MVNO platform, from 2024first-hand