MobileX marks the place where it aims to replace MVNO games

Founder and CEO Peter Aderton has big aspirations for MobileX, which launched in the U.S. using Verizon's network earlier this year. But there are still a few things to be worked on.

"We're finally making ourselves more and more comfortable with the platform," he said Tuesday. "There are still some things we're working on inside the app.

MobileX's app-based service uses AI to predict how much data customers need, with the promise of bringing a dramatic reduction in costs for consumers who don't need more than 30GB of data per month. Its "unlimited" plans start at $15/month for 20GB. $30/month and 25GB/month for $30/month. months. 

One of the things it's working on is easy onboarding for Apple devices. As it is now, an additional step involved is to get an active phone like MobileX that isn't yet recognized as a carrier in Apple's "carrier bundle."  

He is hoping that Apple's policy will change with the upcoming iOS 17. Currently, "it's cumbersome." It's much harder for new entrants and it's much harder if you don't have a lot of money to buy a bunch of iPhones from Apple," he said. For now, MobileX is basically eSIM and only physical SIM.

MobileX customers need to bring an unlocked device, which could be iOS or Android, that is compatible with Verizon's network. MobileX will eventually get down to the handset game, but Aderton said they have no intention of getting into the handset subsidy business. Phone upgrades aren't happening as fast as they used to, and "the unlock market is getting stronger and stronger," he said.

Releted: MobileX jumpstarts profile with X Games

Ambitious agenda

Aderton, who founded Boost Mobile in Australia and launched the brand in the U.S. before Sprint was sold, is adamant that MobileX is the best MVNO game in town. It is competitive with Mint Mobile and other low-cost wireless providers.

MobileX recently received a score of 8 out of 10 in a review of Android Police, which mentioned a feature that allows users to choose their video streaming quality and potentially save on data usage.

MobileX has not done any official marketing yet as they are waiting for the scale of the platform. Aderton said he is not disclosing the number of subscribers MobileX can serve, other than to say it is "on its way to the thousands."

Interestingly, very few customers are taking the "unlimited" plan, which is the "best in the market," he said. They are preferring to go the AI route and only pay for what they need.

Her own daughters are using MobileX, including a 19-year-old who was on the family plan "for the rest of her life." She's paying a lot more attention now and monitoring her data, he said. "It's their money, and it's funny, when it's their money, it suddenly becomes important."

He is pushing the GlobalX agenda to deliver the first "global gigabyte," where a person's MobileX data will travel anywhere in the world. It is currently in beta. 

"It's going to be a game changer and it's going to get rid of international roaming, because international roaming, in my opinion, is basically a scam and the industry needs to do better," he said.

Marathon, not sprint

One of the biggest lessons he learned from his amp'd mobile days was to speed up the business. In the amp'd, "the back end couldn't keep up with the front end," and that was one of the biggest problems before the company went out of business. "I'm not making the same mistake," he said. 

"It's a marathon for me, it's not a sprint," he said, noting that the first marketing MobileX has originally done is the sponsorship of the No. 33 Chevrolet for Brody Kostecki's NASCAR Cup Series debut in August.

"We're further from where I thought we'd be," he said. The conversion rate is higher than people who go to the MobileX site to download the app, and if they can keep up with it, "we're going to do very, very well."

Before MobileX launched, he was told that most people want unlimited data, but he's seeing people change their habits once they start using the MobileX app. They're getting smarter about it. They are controlling their video usage. They're using Wi-Fi more," he said. "We're giving people control and they're taking control.