Is this the end of Helio.... Looking more like Ampd every day

Amp’d never merged with another MVNO.

And thats why they went bye-bye.

Yeah Amp’d never merged but they did try to convice Verizon to buy em out before the bankruptcy. Amp’d was 100% omptimistic even after the bankruptcy and even the day before the bankruptcy. I was part of the cellairis project for Amp’d Mobile to help open 300+ stores for Amp’d Mobile and even the day before they knew they were filing bankruptcy we told them we were going to push for another 30 stores to be open in that June month that they filed. How messed up is that to not even tell you that they are filing and have to read about it. Same thing with Helio. Sk finally realizes that they are just fishing money away everday Helio keeps its doors open and why do you think Virgin wants to sell its Virgin Mobile because they realize the same thing, So Virgin is going to buy controlling stakes of Helio Stock after the merger, wow what a financial relief that is for Sk telecom. Nothing but trouble for the future, and the sad thing about this is is that I am a Helio dealer.

I have been following Helio, ever since the idea was conceived and am not surprised at its current state. I was a professor in Korea those days and tried my hard to give SK Telecom some sense on why convergence does’nt work. SK Telecom has had some success with mobile data on their on home turf and wanted to replicate that in the US. Unfortunately MVNO is a different story and the US is not their own home turf. NTT DoCoMo has also experienced that - i-mode has not succeeded in other countries anywhere close to what it did in Japan. Infact the success of i-mode in Japan is more of a perceived one - Tens of thousands of i-mode sites including mobile mail contribute only 25% to ARPU, the rest being contributed by voice.

I don’t foresee Helio succeeding in the current form in the US. What SK Telecom must realize is

1. Mobile downloads from Internet is a very small business in countries that have appreciable fixed broadband penetration
2. The use of convergence at the application level is not ingrained in the human psyche. It might change over thousand years
3. Human subconscience drives adoption and its understanding is critical to the marketing success of high technology services

In my most recent research I have studied the adoption dynamics of high technology services and have used the conscienc-subconscience model to explain the varying patterns. I have also used this study to design successful “go to market” strategies for mobile data services and Mobile TV.

I would be happy to share the outcomes of my study with the readers and can be contacted on

I agree competely with Mike.  SK Telecom needs to wake up, stop wasting money, and better understand the US market.  MVNOs are not what will work.  There are too many disadvantages in the states with that structure. 

The best option I think for SK Telecom is to buy a smaller US entity who owns infrastructure and licenses such as Leap Wireless.  That would be killer.

i work for helio and havent heard anything about a merger. i hope not. i love helio.

Helio is so gay I had it 4 a wile and I left it with in like 3 to 4 months the service was was I droped calles all the time

Helio had better wake up and realize that they are losing so many customers because of their inept billing and customer service (which has gone from really bad to horrific since moving their call centers overseas). The Ocean was a nice little device, but other than that, I have nothing positive to say about Helio.