<i>Alexstra</i> [sic] <i>has positioned themselves to get acquired in the next 24 months ... without an acquisition Alekstra plans on running an IPO and becoming a stand-alone operator by the first half of 2014, offering services to both business customers and consumers.</i><p>So "disrupting the global wireless industry" (as the article proclaims in both its headline and its lede) is Alekstra's backup plan?<p>Reading both the article and the company's website, I am concerned about Alekstra's chances:<p>- their website does not contain clear information about who they are and what they do<p>- the article seems to suggest that they help companies lower their mobile bills, which seems significantly different than becoming a virtual network operator<p>- the article claims that they have several companies as customers, including McDonald's. Looking at the references page of Alekstra's website, this seems to be McDonald's Oy, McD's Finnish subsidiary.<p>Looking at an earlier article by Bloomberg - <a href="http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-03-02/alekstra-plans-to-start-virtual-mobile-phone-operator-in-2014.html" rel="nofollow">http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-03-02/alekstra-plans-to-s...</a> - it looks like Alekstra hopes to make money by lowering roaming charges on international calls by routing them through their own network. This is vastly different from lowering the price of domestic calling and data, which (at least in the United States) I think most consumers care about.