If you’re running an MVNO, you’re juggling a tech stack that sometimes feels like a house of cards—OSS, billing systems, customer portals, on and on. Somewhere along the line, your team picked a payment processor. How did they choose? Maybe the developers knew APIs from a past gig. It was a quick, easy, tech decision.
Now, you’re paying way too much. That routine tech selection is costing you close to 7% of every transaction when you factor in the headline rate for processing, transaction fees, add-ons, and fraud costs. That’s not even considering the revenue lost from failed payments. Your developers might love their APIs, but your bottom line is suffering.
At MVNO Nation Miami on May 28-29, 2025, Vesta’s CEO Todd Curry spelled it out: “Did your developers pick your payment processor because they like the APIs? You’re paying way too much.” Almost every MVNO there was using Stripe and bleeding cash on generic payment processing.
Here’s the reality: Choosing the right payment processor isn’t just a technology decision. It’s a business decision. Get it right, and you unlock serious growth. Get it wrong, and you’re stuck with high costs, clunky operations, and a customer experience that’s merely passable.
Stripe is fine for startups selling T-shirts or apps. But in telecom—a world of recurring payments, high-volume transactions, first-party chargebacks, and outright fraud—Stripe’s one-size-fits-all approach brings high costs and a solution that isn’t tailored to your industry. You’re probably losing sales to false positives—legitimate customers blocked by generic fraud filters. And when fraud does slip through, you’re stuck with chargebacks, network fines, and a finance team overwhelmed with disputes.
The Opportunity: Turn Payments into a Growth Lever
The biggest MNOs—like AT&T and Vodafone—have known this for decades: Payment processing isn’t just another cost; it’s a growth lever. At MVNO Nation, CEO Todd Curry showed how Vesta flips the script. Our all-in-one solution—payment processing, fraud management, and payment operations—comes with a full fraud guarantee. If we approve a transaction, you get paid. Period. No chargebacks. No fines. No finance team headaches.
Our AI models are built for telecom and trained on decades of industry data. Our customers see higher approval rates than they get with generic solutions, with zero fraud costs. EE is one of them. EE was losing sales on Card Not Present (CNP) top-ups because of false positives. After switching to Vesta, they saw a 10% increase in approval rates and zero fraud costs. No chargebacks, no fines, no manual disputes. And we handle PCI compliance, just like Stripe.
The Payoff: More Cash, Less Hassle
With Vesta, your MVNO gets
- Higher approval rates: More successful payments mean happier customers and better margins.
- Zero fraud costs: Our fraud guarantee means you’re covered, no matter what.
- Simplified operations: No more finance team wrestling with first-party fraud or customer complaints about blocked payments.
- Volume-based savings: The faster you grow, the lower our rates go. No renegotiation needed.
At MVNO Nation, we talked to MVNO reps about costs. Most of them can save at least $100K with Vesta. Bigger companies can save millions. That’s cash you can pour into marketing, customer acquisition, or new markets. Payments becomes a growth engine.
The Next Step: Don’t Settle
Your developers might love Stripe’s APIs, but your business deserves better. You’re not running a side hustle—you’re building an MVNO. It’s time to treat payment processing like the strategic operation it is.
At Vesta we’re helping MVNOs like yours save big, grow fast, and deliver a customer experience that stands out. Don’t let another dollar slip through the cracks.