In conversations with telecom providers and software partners we often hear the question about “What makes Gomibo Platforms’ journey, and the platform that came out of it, so special?” The clearest way to answer that is through a conversation with our founder and co-CEO, Jeroen Doorenbos. Telecom commerce is complex, and many commerce software solutions that enable this either don’t go deep enough into telecom-specific journeys, or they are specialized more in core IT systems rather than the customer-facing experience. In this interview, Jeroen explains what we build, where it came from, and where we’re heading.
Let’s start at the beginning: How did it all start for you?
"Before starting, I’ll quickly introduce myself. My name is Jeroen. I co-founded this company 20 years ago, back in 2006, and you could call this my hobby that got out of control. I founded a company selling phones with subscriptions together with my co-founder while we were still studying in the Netherlands, I even graduated as a medical doctor. But since then it has grown to a group of companies with 600+ million in revenue and over 750 telecom commerce experts working here. We saw the software we needed for our company was not present in the industry, as it is really complex to offer telecom products. Most existing software couldn’t turn telecom specific complexity into a smooth customer journey, so customers ran into friction during comparison, bundling, and checkout, which hurt both conversion and customer satisfaction. That’s why we built a highly specialized telecom commerce solution inhouse. We developed it for ourselves first, and with this we became the largest online telecom player in the Netherlands. Then we also productized the software for telecom operators."
How did you grow what became Belsimpel into a Dutch market leader?
"When we started, the goal was simple: make it easier for customers to buy and manage telecom products online. But very quickly we learnt that telecom comes with its own telecom e-commerce complexity, what is not handled well by generic software platforms. Telecom e-commerce include bundles, contracts, eligibility, number portability, service flows, and a lot of that complexity directly affects conversion and customer satisfaction.
Over time, we kept improving the website and customer journey of Belsimpel, based on thousands of A/B tests and customer feedback. One of our biggest breakthroughs was the product comparison tool. It made it possible to compare 15 million+ product combinations on a single page, which enabled us to recreate the in-store shopping experience online. And honestly, that’s when things really started to accelerate. It was a real game changer and became a big reason Belsimpel scaled into a market leader position in the Netherlands."
What did you learn during that time about what makes e-commerce in the telecommunications sector so challenging?
"The biggest learning is that telco commerce is hard because you’re selling physical products and services in one journey, and both come with their own rules. You’re not just selling a phone; you’re selling a plan, contract terms, eligibility, sometimes credit checks, number portability, and then you still have fulfilment, KYC, SIM & fixed provisioning, activation, and service onboarding. If one of those steps is unclear or breaks, customers drop off or fall back to assisted channels, which increases cost-to-serve.
So, the real challenge is to keep the experience simple for the customer while handling that complexity behind the scenes, and to keep improving it continuously. Small changes in copy, flow, or page performance can have a very big impact, but doing it well takes ongoing effort and iteration across every channel: web, app, point of sales, and contact center. That’s also what I personally love about it. You can see the impact of small improvements very quickly."
How did Belsimpel grow from a student start-up into the market leader in the Netherlands, what made the difference?
"A few things made the difference. First, we started obsessing over making the buying decision simple and transparent, that’s where our comparison tooling really helped. Second, we kept improving the website week after week, based on thousands of A/B tests and customer feedback. Third, we made sure the whole operation could scale efficiently, so customers got a smooth experience end-to-end without needing huge teams behind it. Over time, that’s what took us to $600M+ in telco sales and 1M+ transactions annually, while keeping an NPS of 73. It also shows in the numbers: 3x higher customer conversion and 3x lower cost per order than you usually see in telecom e-commerce, and we run all of that with fewer than 50 FTE in customer service."
After you had effectively “won” the Dutch market, what made you decide it was time to internationalize, and what did that phase teach you?
"Internationalization became the natural next step once growth in the Netherlands started to level off as we scaled. At a certain point, you simply run out of room in a small market. So, it was time to look beyond the Netherlands. But the moment you go cross-border, you can’t rely on just the Dutch market assumptions anymore.
That phase taught us we had to make the software fully multi-brand, multi-language, and multi-currency from the ground up. Going cross-border, we are dealing with different legal and regulatory requirements, and with different customer preferences. For example, German customers care much more about network coverage, while in France you often need to show additional repair index information on product pages. That period forced us to mature fast, and in hindsight I’m really glad we went through it."
At what point did you decide to productize your software product globally within the telecom industry under the Gomibo Platforms brand, and what triggered that move?
"The trigger was that we kept hearing from telcos that digital channels were expensive to build and even more expensive to change. Their ARPU was under pressure and customer expectations were rising fast. When journeys aren’t good enough, customers don’t complete things online, they call the contact center or go to physical stores for help. That drives cost-to-serve up, hurts NPS, and slows down the business because every change becomes a big project. At that point we decided to make our in-house commerce stack available to telecom operators as a product. This resulted in Gomibo Platforms being the productized version of the software we are building and optimizing."
So, in simple terms: what does Gomibo Platforms do for telecom providers?
"At Gomibo Platforms we built a configurable commerce SaaS solution specifically for the telecom industry. Telcos can configure the platform fully in their own branding and use the same Commerce Core to power digital sales and service across channels. For example, the same principles and building blocks have powered Belsimpel’s commerce at scale.
We can power all channels with our software, but we also deliver smaller but valuable use cases to cover specific business needs or opportunities. Key KPIs to focus upon in such use cases could be increasing digital revenues, reducing churn, or increasing NPS. The same Commerce Core would be used for this use case as for powering all your channels, laying the foundation for potential future expansions, if the project is deemed successful. We call this the Proof-of-Value to Scale approach, and it’s how we most often deliver our solution. I like this approach because it keeps the starting point realistic and the risk low."
Image: High-level visualization of our platform
What specific problems are you solving with the Gomibo Platforms software, and why are those problems so hard for telcos to solve with traditional commerce or IT solutions?
"Telcos often serve their customers via generic commerce platforms that were not built for the complexities of telecom sales and service. These platforms can be strong in retail, but they’re not designed for telecom complexity like bundles, eligibility, number porting, and retention flows. Our SaaS product operates as a thin commerce layer on top of and minimally affecting existing IT stacks. It has proven itself by powering millions of digital telco sales annually in 30 countries, with an average NPS of more than 70. By using the platform, our landmark implementation Belsimpel has become the online market leader in The Netherlands."
Can you share a few concrete examples of the types of use cases Gomibo Platforms can handle?
"In most conversations, we start with the telco’s strategic priority. It’s usually one of three: growth, cost reduction, or operational excellence. From there, we select a first, focused use case with a clear KPI, so the team can prove value quickly. The most common starting points we see right now are:
These use cases deliver impact fast, and once the first use case is live, we expand step by step, adding more offers, improving more journeys, rolling it out to other brands, or extending it to additional channels."
I want to quickly come back on what you said a few questions back. You mentioned that the software sits on top of a telco’s existing IT core. What does that mean in practice?
"In practice, it means a telco keeps its BSS/OSS as the systems of record for products, customers, billing, and network services. We don’t replace those. Gomibo Platforms sits on top as a thin commercial layer that powers the customer-facing journeys, while keeping data aligned across systems."
Image: High-level visualization of how our product sits on top of a telco’s existing IT core
"A good analogy is the banking sector. Banks typically keep their core banking system, and add a digital layer on top. Backbase is a well-known example of that approach. We follow the same principle in telecom: keep the core stable, and modernize the channels with a purpose-built commerce layer.
For a first use case, we aim for minimal-effort integration: usually a small set of APIs for product, customer, order, and billing data. The exact scope depends on the telco’s architecture and we define it together during scoping."
What differentiates Gomibo Platforms from its competitors?
"Most telco channels run on software from competitors that’s either telecom specific but not commerce-ready, or strong in commerce but not built for telecom. The first category relates to BSS/OSS, which are important for product catalog, billing, and CRM, but it is not built for directly powering commerce channels. The other generic enterprise commerce software is great overall commerce software, but it cannot support complex telecom product structures and processes.
What differentiates us from competitors is that we’ve built the only software solution that fills that gap in the market, it is both telecom-specific and strong in channel and journey execution. Without a telco-specific commerce layer, teams depend on custom workarounds that slow releases and raise costs. By adding this layer, Gomibo enables telcos to improve time-to market and conversion without rebuilding the core IT stack. This example is explaining why vertical SaaS is booming: industries are getting more complex, and generic platforms require too much customization to keep up, such as in the telecom industry. You can really feel that shift happening in the market right now."
Image: The state of the telecom commerce (channel) software landscape in 2026
Can you talk about the most recent customer case? How did you implement your software?
"Our most recent customer case is Handyhelden: a new digital brand we launched together with freenet, using a clear step-by-step process. We started by selecting the first use case, aligning on scope and success KPIs, and agreeing the required integration touchpoints. Then we configured the platform using our out-of-the-box telco customer journeys. Because our commerce solution can run on top of the existing freenet IT stack, we could go from contract signature to a live production launch quickly, often as a focused Proof-of-Value parallel to the current solution. Since launch, Handyhelden has been performing strongly and is exceeding the commercial expectations. Besides, they achieved a 4.4/5 customer satisfaction rating and they have the ability to launch new promotions in under five minutes. We’re also in active conversations with a lot of other telcos right now, so hopefully I can share more of them soon. I’m genuinely excited about what’s coming next."
How do you see telco commerce changing in the next 3–5 years?
"Customers have gotten used to digital journeys that are fast, personalized, and easy to understand, and telcos are feeling the squeeze on ARPU at the same time. So more and more growth will come from things like devices, multiplay, OTT services, and smarter offers driven by AI. That means telcos need to be able to configure and adjust offers quickly, and sell them through high-performing digital journeys. A lot of the tooling out there just wasn’t built for that level of telco complexity, so the winners will differentiate on having the best possible digital commerce strategy and platform. They’ll be the telcos that can move as fast as the market.
And looking a bit further ahead, 6G will start shaping the roadmap as well. Initiatives like Future Network Services (FNS) in the Netherlands are already working on building a national 6G ecosystem toward 2030, which will push telcos to keep evolving."
Looking ahead, what does the future of Gomibo Platforms look like over the next few years?
"Our focus is to help telcos improve commercial performance and customer experience through better, faster journeys. Over the next few years, a big priority is scaling Gomibo Platforms globally, expanding into more markets and supporting more telcos with a repeatable approach that delivers value quickly. We want telco teams to be able to launch, test, and improve journeys with less dependency on long IT cycles, so they can keep up with what customers expect.
Our focus stays the same: help telcos improve commercial performance and customer experience through better, faster journeys. Telcos are moving toward more digital-native operating models: simpler propositions, lower cost-to-serve, and increasingly AI-supported journeys, with 6G on the horizon as another wave of change. For that, we need to keep building the best telco commerce platform, so telco teams can launch, test, and improve journeys without being blocked by long IT cycles. In the coming years, our biggest priority is expanding into more countries. If you ask me for the long-term: in 10 years, I want to see our software running at least one major provider in every large telecom market in Europe, and beyond. That’s the horizon we’re working towards."