Urban, youth-oriented MVNO Helio L.L.C. is racking up "record growth," the company said yesterday in announcing that founder Sky Dayton will leave the CEO post to become chairman. Dayton replaces current chairman Jinwoo So, president of global business at SK Telecom. Helio is a...
Editor's Note: Welcome to Reality Check, a feature for RCR Wireless News' weekly e-mail service, Mobile Content and Culture. We've gathered a group of visionaries and veterans in the mobile content industry to give their insights into the marketplace. In the coming weeks look...
San Francisco's long-delayed plan to bring free, citywide Wi-Fi coverage to its more than 800,000 residents seems to have been revived. Meraki Networks Inc. announced that it will deploy such a network throughout the city by the end of the year thanks to a...
MVNO Helio L.L.C. continues to roll out devices in the face of financial challenges, offering a new Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. slider handset sporting haptic feedback on exterior keys.The Mysto is available for $149 with contract to subscribers of "Helio powered by SK Telecom,"...
So EarthLink announced it was seeking "strategic alternatives" for its municipal Wi- Fi business. That issue, along with its fledgling Helio mobile virtual network operator joint venture with SK Telecom, has diminished the company's value in the eye of its shareholders.While the "strategic alternative"...
EarthLink Inc. late Friday announced it is considering "strategic alternatives" for its municipal Wi-Fi operations, language typically used to signify that a business is up for sale. Indeed, the company even offered what appears to be a price tag, explaining in a short press...
Silicon Valley-the country's hub of innovation and technology-is home to more than 2.4 million people and a group of businesses that read like a who's who of the dotcom darlings. Yet, for all the money and societal changes that were born from the area,...
EarthLink Inc. posted a third-quarter loss driven by restructuring costs and its investment in mobile virtual network operator Helio L.L.C., but promised that it was in the midst of a turnaround.EarthLink's loss for the quarter was $79.4 million on revenues of nearly $300 million....
After more than two years, a plan to blanket San Francisco with seamless wireless Internet access at no cost to consumers is back where it started. All that stands in the wake of the failed citywide Wi-Fi effort now is a mountain of paperwork.At...
Helio L.L.C., which has made a point of maintaining its handset pricing, is offering a limited-time, online-only promotion with at least $50 off each of the three currently available handsets. The discounts include $50 off the dual-slider Pantech Corp. Ocean handset, reducing its price...
IF 2006 WAS THE YEAR OF THE LAUNCH for mobile virtual network operators, then 2007 has so far been the Year of the Crash.The last few months have brought a screeching halt to the MVNO hype that dominated 2005 and most of 2006, when...
The next big thing in mobile virtual network operators may not look much like the MVNOs that have been launching-and sometimes crashing-in the past couple of years. With the hype around the space settling into caution, observers see a new kind of MVNO-like partnership...
Mobile virtual network operator Helio L.L.C. has received a fresh commitment of funds from South Korean co-parent SK Telecom, to the tune of $270 million. The funding does not include a matching commitment from Helio's other owner, EarthLink Inc.EarthLink said it is in discussions...
San Francisco has formally walked away from a deal to build a Wi-Fi network throughout the city. The effort was already largely considered dead late last month when EarthLink Inc. rescinded its proposal-which included a teaming with Google Inc.-to cover the estimated $14 million...
Editor's Note: Welcome to our Monday feature, Analyst Angle. We've collected a group of the industry's leading analysts to give their outlook on the hot topics in the wireless industry. In the coming weeks look for columns from Current Analysis' Avi Greengart, iGR's Iain...
MUNICIPAL WI-FI TOOK SOME MAJOR HITS last week. Once considered by many cities and towns to be the roadmap to offer high-speed Internet access for all, wide-spread use of the unlicensed technology is now less certain. In a week that saw Google Inc. boasting...
These appear to be dark days for municipal Wi-Fi. The oncepromising way to bring wireless broadband to the masses has hit that hard wall separating hype from reality.Chicago just added itself to a growing list of cities with second thoughts about deploying a publicly...
Mobile virtual network operator Helio L.L.C. cut about 5% of its workforce, mostly in its field sales team, the company confirmed following media reports of the move.The cuts amount to around 100 positions, and Helio spokesman Rick Heineman described them as being part of...
EarthLink Inc. has fired 900 employees and closed offices in Orlando, Fla.; Knoxville, Tenn.; Harrisburg, Pa.; and San Francisco. The company said it will also substantially reduce its presence in Pasadena, Calif., and Atlanta. Billed as a "corporate restructuring," the company expects to pay...
Google Inc. offered a glimpse into the operations of its free, municipal Wi-Fi effort, which the company launched earlier this year in its home base of Mountain View, Calif. Google reported that the network now covers 12 square miles and counts 15,000 unique users...
Bringing broadband to the masses is kind of like the weather: Everyone talks about it, but no one is doing anything about it. President Bush's plan of bridging the digital divide is laudable in theory, but problematic in reality.The problem is no one can...
Editor's Note: In this monthly feature, RCR Wireless News talks to retail managers across the country to get a first-hand view of what's hot in wireless.Despite the travails of Amp'd Mobile Inc., not all news is dour in the mobile virtual network operator space....
AS AMP'D MOBILE INC. WINDS DOWN its mobile virtual network operator service, questions loom about the health of the MVNO space.Bankrupt Amp'd Mobile has halted customer service and was on the verge of cutting off network access to its customers entirely last week, before...
Mobile virtual network operator Helio L.L.C. continued to drag at parent EarthLink Inc. as both firms reported a loss for the second quarter. The news sent EarthLink's stock down more than 2% to $7.20 per share.EarthLink recorded a loss of $16.3 million in the...
