Sources close to Business Insider have reported that Apple is reportedly running trials on an MVNO, or Mobile Virtual Network Operator, on existing iPhones owned by Apple employees in the US. The sources claim that this is a part of a testing process intended to open an MVNO in the US, and also report that Apple is in talks with telecoms companies about bringing the service to Europe.
This network would run off of existing cellular towers and replace services provided by existing cellular providers like Verizon or AT&T.
These reports come after reports that Apple was testing a service called iCloud Voicemail that uses Siri to automatically transcribe voicemail messages.
If these services make it past the testing phase, it will be a few years until the services come to the public market. They will have to negotiate with existing cellular networks to be able to use their towers and dishes before they can offer any sort of cellular connection to consumers.
Apple filed for a patent on an MVNO service in 2006, and recently filed to extend the patent.
They showed interest in becoming the gateway to cellular networks when they released the Apple SIM in the iPad Air 2 and iPad Mini 3 in 2014, which made it possible to connect to several different carriers.
Several different companies have attempted to do this before. Disney and ESPN tried to launch an MVNO service in 2012 but had to shut it down. Google is currently testing their own MVNO, known as Project Fi, on the Nexus 6.
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Jack Griffin is a writer for the VAVEL USA Technology section. Follow him on Twitter at @jacksonlgriffin.
