Colruyt Mobile, the MVNO of Belgian supermarket chain Colruyt, is halting its activities effective 2 July 2014. Its network host, Mobistar, will take over the Colruyt prepaid services and provide continuity of service to customers.

Tarifica’s Take

Colruyt launched its MVNO in 2011, in an agreement with Mobistar, to target the low-cost prepaid market. However, the retailer has found it difficult to maintain its low prices in the current market, in which a sufficient number of customers is hard to come by. As of the end of 2013, Belgium had 40 MVNOs; of those, the top 10 had 93 percent of the market, and the other 30 (which included Colruyt) had only 7 percent. Clearly, the country now has too many MVNOs, and some of them will have to fall by the wayside.