Amp’d Mobile
Photo Credit: Amp'd Mobile's Moto Q smartphone
Amp'd Mobile is perhaps the best example of the industry's onetime white-hot obsession with the MVNO business model, and also symbolizes how quickly such mania can burn out.
Headed by a team of well-known wireless executives and buoyed by flashy phones and high-profile sponsorships, Amp'd Mobile offered hip and trendy wireless data services over Verizon Wireless' network. Industry pundits were almost unanimous in their praise of the Mobile Virtual Network Operator business model, wherein a brand like ESPN, Disney or Amp'd essentially resold wireless service and devices via their own brand and through their own sales channels--with the hope that they could expand a market dominated by staid, established wireless operators.
But the MVNO market came to a crashing halt in 2007, when Amp'd Mobile and a number of other high-profile MVNOs shuttered their services amid sky-high startup costs and few subscribers to show for it.
However, a few MVNO efforts have survived, most notably TracFone, Virgin Mobile USA and Sprint Nextel's Boost Mobile.
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