Yesterday we reported that Amp'd had filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, citing "an unprecedented growth of subscribers" between November and February following a series of advertisements on MTV. Now, according to BusinessWeek, a court filing from Amp'd disclosed that about 90 percent of Amp'd's subscribers were on 18 month contracts and that Amp'd "began to find a host of credit and collections problems [that] contributed ultimately to liquidity crisis." By May the number of non-paying Amp'd subscribers reached 80,000, which is about half of Amp'd's estimated 200,000 subscribers.
While some industry analysts predict the Amp'd announcement will result in a slackening of investments in MVNOs, Gartner says that MVNOs already serve five to 10 percent of U.S. mobile subscribers today and will serve 25 percent of them in five years time.
For more on Amp'd:
- see this BusinessWeek report