Can a virtual telco carve out a national footprint by doubling down on wholesale partnerships—and is Optus the key to that scale?
Australia’s Yomojo is tightening its alignment with Optus, extending a 10-year mobile agreement into a three-year whole-of-business partnership that will now encompass mobile, 5G home broadband, and NBN access across all 121 national points of interconnection.
For the MVNO (mobile virtual network operator), the new deal is more than just operational continuity—it’s a foundational move to scale services across consumer, business, and wholesale markets. Under the leadership of newly appointed CEO James Linton, a former Exetel director, Yomojo is repositioning itself for long-term growth by leaning into a telco playbook Linton knows well: bundling national coverage with deep wholesale access.
“Optus was the foundation on which Exetel was built,” Linton said, referencing his family’s past ownership of the ISP. “During that time, we were Optus’ largest ADSL2+ and NBN customer.”
That legacy now informs Yomojo’s strategy. After a mid-2024 ownership transition, Linton led a review of Australia’s three major mobile networks and 14 NBN wholesalers. The outcome? A renewed commitment to Optus, which the company sees as offering both technical scale and operational flexibility.
“It made sense to engage with Optus on a new whole-of-business agreement that not only covers the legacy mobile and fixed wireless services Yomojo offers,” Linton explained, “but also takes advantage of Optus’ significant fixed broadband network.”
With this agreement, Yomojo gains streamlined provisioning across mobile, fixed wireless (5G), and NBN—positioning the company to offer a unified connectivity portfolio underpinned by Optus’ infrastructure.
While Australia’s telco market remains dominated by tier-one incumbents, niche virtual operators like Yomojo are carving out space through targeted service offerings and lean operations. By building on familiar wholesale relationships, Yomojo is betting that agility, bundled services, and full-stack access to national infrastructure can create a competitive edge.
The strategic refresh signals that MVNOs may not be confined to prepaid or budget consumer segments. As Yomojo eyes growth across residential and SMB markets, its expanded partnership with Optus becomes a play for relevance in a rapidly converging connectivity landscape.