Vodafone Egypt subsidiary launches MVNO in Italy

BLADNA, which means ‘homeland’ in Arabic, has commenced service as a MVNO in Italy, focused on the North African community living in the country. The company, which is a subsidiary of Vodafone Egypt, will cater for the growing North African community in Italy comprised mainly of Egyptian, Moroccan and North African nationals. Planning, implementation and launch of the MVNO was achieved in the space of two months.

Effortel, the mobile virtual network operator and enabler, announced it is powering BLADNA, and that this is not the first time it has supported an MVNO venture in the Italian market; as it currently powers Carrefour Uno Mobile and Daily Telecom, an ethnic MVNO dedicated to the Chinese community in Italy.

Effortel already has experience of deploying an Arabic-language MVNO, its technology platform powers Samatel in Oman.

“The Arab ethnic community is considered to be one of the largest foreign immigrant communities living in Italy mainly coming from North Africa,” said Sherine Fouad, MD of BLADNA. BLADNA was designed to cater for the needs of this rapidly-growing Arabic community in Italy.