Canaries in the MVNO Coal Mines

For those of you that don't know the adage of the "canary in the coal mine" - this was a practise of miners years ago, where they would bring caged canaries into the coal mines, and if the air got so bad that the canaries died, it was certain that the miners would be in trouble soon. Well....

In case you missed it, Amp’d mobile recently filed bankruptcy. Filing for bankruptcy isn’t anything new in the telecom world, but this particular development is telling of all the hype around MVNOs. Couple this information with ESPN’s failed MVNO, it’s logical to believe that the brand-specific/content-specific MVNO business plan is nothing but hype.
From this article and specifically the bankruptcy filing:

Amp'd Debt:
•   $33 million to its infrastructure/network provider Verizon Wireless,
•   handset provider Motorola—$16 million;
•   Vivendi about $10 million,
•   BestBuy about $8 million;
•   MTV Networks about $1.8 million; and others.
In total, the total debt is more than $100 million

I leave you with this interesting headline from the MVNO Summit of 2006:

Mobile ESPN and Amp'd Mobile Headline the 2006 MVNO Summit; Industry Meeting Place for the Premier Brands in the Mobile Market

I don't make these things up people.

Adam "voiploser" Uzelac