Sunday, June 29, 2008

HELIO FAILS

Helio is a small MVNO company. I know you are probably saying what the hell is that? so I called Mr. Wiki in to explain.

URBAN GEEK: Hello Mr. Wiki, welcome to the Urban Geek Blog the best damn tech blog ever! Please explain to my FRESH readers what in the hell is a MVNO?

Mr. Wiki: Hello U.G., it is my pleasure to be on the Urban Geek Blog. To explain it to you directly from my web site, "A mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) is a company that provides mobile phone service but does not have its own licensed frequency allocation of radio spectrum, nor does it necessarily have all of the infrastructure required to provide mobile telephone service.[1] A company that does have frequency allocation(s) and all the required infrastructure to run an independent mobile network is known simply as a Mobile Network Operator (MNO). MVNOs are roughly equivalent to the "switchless resellers" of the traditional landline telephone market. Switchless resellers buy minutes wholesale from the large long distance companies and retail them to their customers."

URBAN GEEK: Ohhhhhhhh I see. So readers, to put it to you simply, HELIO is a mobile seller that sales high-end telephones but out sources your network service from other provider like Sprint, or T-mobile. (Well that sucks balls!)

Mr. Wiki: Yes indeed it ball sucks. Thanks to an investment by South Korea's SK Telecom, Korean-Americans HELIO was able to last as long as it did. The fact is HELIO only had roughly 170,000 subscribers. That's pretty small numbers when it comes to the mobile industry.

URBAN GEEK: Wow, well thanks Wiki for explaining what MVNO is.

(Of course this conversation was not real but please take advantage of www.Wikipedia.com to look up any company or word)

So HELIO might have failed but it's not over the HELIO mobile technology. Virgin Mobile has decided to purchase HELIO for $39 million in equity. As part of the deal, Virgin Mobile is also receiving $50 million to pay down Helio's debt (half from SK Telecom, and half from its parent company Virgin Group), as well as an additional revolving credit facility of $60 million. The Helio brand will be subsumed by Virgin Mobile. (Hey Richard, is there nothing that you won't place your logo on? How about some Virgin Orange Juice) The deal will also give Virgin access to a number of technologies owned by Helio including customer management and cellphone deck applications.


1 comment:

Anonymous said...

You know a funny thing, in the UK Virgin launched ... Virgin Cola. They still serve it on Virgin Atlantic. It's so annoying, I ask for Coke and they only serve Virgin Cola. There's also Virgin Vodka ... For real: http://www.virgindrinks.com/