Middle-man Theory

Telecom
1

Just came up with this theory on Reddit, thought I'd cross-post to get opinions here.

I'm starting to think that "back end supplier" Tom referred to was actually a middle man between CN & Sprint. If THEY are the ones who "took the money & ran" - leaving CN in a lurch and without a significant amount of their funds, it would explain a lot. Until things are resolved, it would be in CN's best legal interests not to trash-talk said (former) business partner. It certainly would explain the complete lack of communication.

2

I do not find it at all surprising that CellNUVO has not offered any detailed information.

When the company feels it is appropriate to comment it will do so.

The information that has been available publicly for some time now suggests the matter is not a technical issue of any type.

3

Would a less mystical name for your theory be "breach of contract", or even shorter, "fraud", by the other party?

4

I have no particular knowledge here, other than what I've read about the way many MVNOs are structured.
Although possible, there is no need to read financial "middle man" into Tom's statement about a backend provider. Many (possibly most) MVNOs contract out some or all of their backend needs to specialists. Examples of such specialists are Bandwidth (who supplies number portability and porting services to many MVNOs), and I believe Ting's parent company Tucows.

A short Wikipedia article about MVNEs (Mobile Virtual Network Enabler) is here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mobile_virtual_network_enabler

Backend suppliers may provide technical services like number portability, billing serices, customer service, wholesale aggregation and negotiation with carriers, etc , For CN, we can probably add another layer of outside providers that aren't really MVNEs, since they're tying in to a ad-supported model not specifically tailored for telecom.

Just guessing, but if any of those backend suppliers pulled out at a moment when CN was already into a platform change to allow GSM and/or iPhone, this would add a whole series of unexpected wrenches in the works of that change..

5

Even without concrete evidence, I am afraid that this "middle man theory" is true. Tom is also a victim in this ordeal. If CN owes money to Sprint, no porting will be allowed. While waiting, I would recommend everyone working on plan B and get phone services elsewhere.

Best Buy has some nice inexpensive new phones such as Huawei Honor 6x, Moto g5 plus; and some pre-owned phones such as iPhone 5/5s. $50 off if you buy Cricket SIM and refill card.

If I am the project manager of this "platform changeover", when things do not go as planned and it has impact on my business, I would immediately rollback to where it was. I am not seeing this happening here. So this is my clue that this outage is not technical related.

6

Cellnuvo have stated they are not in financial difficulties.

7

"Rolling back to where it was" wouldn't be an option if a backend supplier was no longer around. Moving forward, in some direction, would be the only option.

Re: my earlier comment about "middle man"-- any MVNE is a "middle-man" in some aspects, since they're an interface point to some other portion of the business, so I agree that it's probably a "middle-man" problem (as Tom stated). . Extrapolating that to a "took the money & ran" scenario just isn't a necessity to explain the current CN outage.

8

Only if we want to be caught up in the inevitable defamation suit.

9

Anyone else with an issue of all these troll posters coming here in last 3 days.

Don't think I will read anyone that joins in the last 2 weeks.

No offense

Good policy. No?

10

The most pressing issue is not the nature of the problem but rather the impact on users who have CellNUVO as a primary phone.

Effectively, porting appears to not be working despite assurances regarding the information required to do so being provided by CellNUVO.

Even if a user does not need to port, there is no way for the user to directly release the MEID and ICCID which means the phone cannot be used on another Sprint MVNO.

11

Yep, and CEOs never lie, amiright? Not saying he is, but actions speak louder than words and thus I'll believe it when I see it. I'll wait patiently because I understand the potential difficulties if what he says is true, but he's GOT to get better at communicating in the meantime.

A priority at this point should be getting customers' phones freed up for use elsewhere so there's no hard feelings. It's not like he doesn't have everyone's email addresses and can tell them when it's safe to come back if they want. He's destroying his trust by leaving people unable to use what is probably the most important device in their lives.

12

"A priority at this point should be getting customers' phones freed up for use elsewhere"

It is possible that is not within the direct control of the company at present.

If that is true, then users will need to act through a third party to resolve the matter.

13

I've been lurking for over a month, just registered today because I thought I might have some points of interest to speak of. Sorry if you somehow think I'm trolling.

14

I'm unaware of any third party outside of Sprint themselves (good luck with that) that could do anything. Could you be more specific?

15

So they need to be better at communicating but you won't believe a word they say...

You'll wait patiently but in the meantime spread conspiracy theories.

16

I decided to dump sprint as my main line today. I want to MetroPCS and ported out, got a free LG K20 plus and got the $30 plan with 2gig lte, unlim low speed after that, unlim calls and texting. I was with Sprint over 10 years but just got fed up with all their crap. I don't know if they played any role in all of this but either way I'm glad to have fired them!

I was using the cellnuvo line as a fairly primary line for many contacts, but now I need to go through and contact everyone and have them use the MetroPCS line, at least for now but maybe forever after all this outage BS. I personally don't need to be held hostage by any cell phone company, life is too short and I have bigger fish to fry!

17

Everyone I know only has my Google Voice number and I set it to forward to whatever phone I happen to be carrying, that day.

And my phone number has my name imbedded in it, so it's easy to remember.

It's the best way to never have to worry about porting numbers.

18

IMHO it would be foolish to take anything spoken that cannot be independently verified as even probable truth. If you paid even a modicum of attention to the business world (or politics, for that matter), then you would know this to be true. "Truthiness" is a judgement call we all have to make probably several times a day.

There are also degrees of truth, also known as "spin" by PR types. Thanks to differing human interpretations that are highly influenced by each of our own biases, there can be a significant difference between what is technically or possibly true in a legal sense and what the actual or most probable truth is. Much like how my attempts at guessing what might be happening during this void of information are interpreted by you as conspiracy theories. I think I'm being pretty fair in my guess (not one of those jumping on the "Tom took the money & ran" bandwagon), but you apparently think I'm just being a troll. Not my intention as I was just trying to get other people's input into my thoughts, but that's how you chose (and it most certainly IS a choice) to take it.

Human psychology is a PITA, but really needs to be taught more IMHO.

19

Respectfully, please do not give up your day job to pursue a career as a crime novelist.

20

Yes I do have a Google voice number but I don't use it the way you do. I just personally would never add that additional layer to my main lines and count on it working flawlessly all the time. To each their own but that is just something I would never do. I have it for other reasons and it works ok for what I want.