Andrew Yang’s Noble Mobile Is Turning Wireless Plans Into a Cashback Revolution

Most phone carriers charge you for using more data. Noble Mobile is pulling the good ole’ Uno Reverse and flipping that logic on its head.

Every plan is unlimited by default, but if you use less than a certain threshold of data in a given month, Noble will send you money back - effectively turning your restraint into a rebate.

It’s a catchy premise to get consumers in the door, but the company’s mission is more noble than that (groan). Humans are spending an average of 5 hours on their phone every day, and it’s taking away from human connection & being present in the moment.

Noble wants to incentivize consumers to use their phone less, so that they can get back to spending time with one another. And this is something that consumers want as well - 53% of Americans want to cut back their phone usage.

Noble Mobile was born out of a founding team that you don’t see everyday - former presidential candidate Andrew Yang and his his campaign managers Zach Graumann & Ethan Dunn have all teamed up to launch the company.

While best known for running in the 2020 presidential election, Yang was originally a businessman. He built up test preparation company called Manhattan Prep and sold the venture to Kaplan in 2009.

Unlike legacy carriers that spend billions building networks, Noble Mobile doesn’t own a single cell tower.

Instead, it operates as an MVNO (Mobile Virtual Network Operator) - leasing access from T-Mobile’s 5G network.

This model gives Noble the best of both worlds:

In practical terms, that means Noble users get T-Mobile’s same 5G speeds and reliability - just with a different billing model and interface on top. It’s a playbook we’ve seen before most notably with Mint Mobile.

If you’re wondering why T-Mobile would allow a cheaper competitor to ‘mooch’ off its 5G network it’s spent billions assembling, you’re asking the right questions.

There’s actually a good number of reasons that make it sound strategy for T-Mobile to partner with MVNOs like Noble & Mint Mobile.

T-Mobile has quietly become the most MVNO-friendly carrier in the U.S. By wholesaling access to startups like Mint Mobile (later acquired by T-Mobile) and now Noble Mobile, it’s able to monetize unused network capacity without diluting its premium brand.

Instead of chasing every low-cost customer directly, T-Mobile lets MVNOs handle that segment — capturing incremental revenue through wholesale fees. It’s a win-win: T-Mobile gets higher network utilization, while startups like Noble get instant infrastructure.

It’s the same segmentation strategy airlines use when selling seats through third-party aggregators - better to fill the plane at a lower margin than leave seats empty.

For T-Mobile, Noble isn’t a threat; it’s a profit multiplier.

Mobile Virtual Network Operators (everyone needs a friendly reminder on long acronyms) are actually much more popular in Europe. Some countries like the U.K. have a 30% adoption rate of MVNOs - this is over 3x the adoption in America.

When I asked co-founder Zach Graumann why this may be, he pondered that Europeans face a more fractured network of regional carriers and are therefore more accustomed to switching out SIM cards & changing networks.

U.S. networks have instead focused on retention and making it seem like it’s extremely difficult to switch carriers. They’ve done this mainly by two ways:

But the tides may be starting to favor MVNOs. And it makes sense that this would be the case…

Look no further than credit cards - hundreds of companies have built business on top of the backbone of Visa and Mastercard. There are credit cards on these payment rails that specialize by catering to every niche possible:

I mean hell, NASCAR has a credit card! You’d think we’d have more than just a handful of niche cell phone carriers with how much the strategy has been leveraged by credit cards.

I love the concept, the cashback for less data usage reminds me of the few car insurance providers who rewards their plan members for safe driving.

MVNOs are something that has been proven to work (Mint was acquired for $1.3B+), and yet, there is so little competition. The phone carrier landscape is split into two camps:

Noble is attempting to strike the perfect middle; mid-tier pricing ($30-$50) but without sacrificing network speed or coverage. Zach answered directly that T-Mobile’s contract does not include any network limitations for Noble customers.

I do think that Mint Mobile is the closest comparison to Noble in terms of pricing - their unlimited plans are $30/month when you prepay 12 months. There will inevitably be some overlap in the customer that they vie for, but Noble’s cashback approach is unique enough that I foresee them being able to carve out an audience regardless of the competition.

To succeed, Noble will need people to be willing to switch phone plans. To me, this might be Noble’s greatest hurdle. Switching phone plans has actually become really simple from a technical perspective - most phones nowadays don’t require a physical SIM card to be installed in person at a store.

In fact, Zach told me that he could switch my phone plan to Noble in 3 minutes, no problem. The actual challenge lies within getting the 3-5 people on your phone plan to all agree & coordinate into switching plans.

This is a real challenge, but one all the carriers face. I’ll acknowledge the risk, but it does not deter me from this investment. Mainly because the upside in this investment is latching on to the next Mint Mobile.

Mint was bought by T-Mobile for $1.35 billion - at Noble’s current valuation of $31.5M that represents 4,290% increase.

The upside is abundant and I think they can scale by carving out that mid-tier price positioning that’s been left empty in the marketplace. It helps that the unit economics are in their favor - Noble is an extremely asset-light company.

There are no brick-and-mortar stores, no network towers to maintain - it’s just the software, marketing, and human salaries for the most part. Yang has mentioned in interviews that Noble is gross profitable on every member, and I know from the deal mechanics that as the subscriber base grows the gross profit margin will actually expand for Noble.

Even with the asset-light model, Noble is well capitalized and set to power through a growth phase. The company has received $10.3M in funding from notable VCs and investors (like Scott Galloway!). Zach mused that they technically don’t need any more money, but wanted to extend an equity opportunity to their earliest supporters.

That’s my kind of people right there.

I’ve gone ahead and reserved a $1,000 investment in the company, you can check out more details on Noble at the link below if you want!

PS - their round is currently over-subscribed but if you are interested in investing, you can still reserve an investment. Zach mentioned to me that they may expand the cap for how much money they will accept in their raise.

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