A report on Hoovers has the Earthlink and SK Telecom backed Helio bleeding cash and possibly on the ropes.
It seems in the USA MVNO’s just don’t make it, as the failed Disney MVNO and now this would seem to indicate.
Beyond some very cool phones, Helio is still not offering too much in the way of “me different” that would cause a subscriber of Verizon or Sprint to switch. Their pricing plans are great, but the original promise by the company of what Helio would be (i.e. SK Telecom here in the USA) has not really been achieved. The prospect of what real high speed (up to 2 megabit) mobile data can mean is very enticing, but it will be a few years here in the USA before that is happening on the networks the way it does in South Korea.
What’s more Helio wanted to go after the college and Asian markets originally, but seems to have become too much of a “me too” player vs. Amped, Boost and Virgin Mobile here in the USA. The lack of differentiation in market positioning, on store shelves. Their sharp and clever PR efforts aside, Helio is just not getting enough traction, and Earthlink, with a cash drain and other initiatives that need support may have to think hard about putting more money in unless it is part of a roll up strategy.
Personally, I’d rather see Earthlink buy Vonage’s customer base first, then pump more dollars into Helio and find a way to buy more of Boingo. All those pieces fit together nicely.
True but the phones are cool. š