Unsurprisingly Peter Adderton, CEO of Amp’d Mobile, is still upbeat about the potential of MVNOs, and Amp’d. He said Mobile ESPN was just Disney looking for something to do with the brand…
There’s some other interesting quotes: “The company started slowly nine months ago, but Adderton says it is accelerating now: He says Amp’d has more than 50,000 subscribers in the U.S. and is adding more than 20,000 per month. Its subscribers spend about $100 per month on Amp’d service, he says, including $30 per month for data services--about five times the national average.”
Adderton admits that people choose phone providers based on voice calls and cheap handsets (hence Amp’ds plans for Razr phones etc) but its customers like content as well. ”We’re streaming over 200,000 videos a month right now. We’re probably doing close to 50,000 or 100,000 tracks of music. We’re doing tons of games, ringtones, wallpaper, text messaging. When we [started] the business, we expected to have a data ARPU [average monthly revenue per user] after two years of $18. And we’re at $30 after really three or four months of going. It may not be the reason that they originally purchased Amp’d, but once they get it, they’re coming back time and time again. Usage is going up; it’s not going down.”
Related stories:
--Manish Jha On The New Mobile ESPN
--Amp’d Gets Distribution through Circuit City, After Best Buy Deal