Disney Mobile, R.I.P.: 2006 - 2007

Perhaps Disney hoped that its MVNO bearing the corporate name would fare a little better than its doomed sibling, Mobile ESPN, but it was not to be. Making good on some ominous verbiage last week from CFO Thomas Staggs, Disney Mobile has announced that it will "cease its wireless operations" as of December 31, 2007. MVNOs have generally had a tough time navigating through the dog-eat-dog world of profitable wireless service, and Disney Mobile was dogged from the very beginning with tough competition on kid-friendly features and hardware from larger rivals and a dearth of quality handsets. Though it seems that existing subscribers will be able to continue to use most or all features of the service through then, folks are being encouraged to pack their bags and move elsewhere by November 30 to ensure plenty of time to get numbers ported. Furthermore, hardware purchased directly through Disney Mobile will be subject to a reimbursement of some sort, with details going up early next month.

[Thanks, Paul D.]

[Alex Padilla @ Sep 27th 2007 3:05PM]

Disney had a mobile service?

[Otsego_Undead @ Sep 27th 2007 3:06PM]

exactly.

[dcny @ Sep 27th 2007 3:27PM]

dang i really liked them the parents control basically everything on the phone hopefully one of the major companies adds those features.

[Andrew Campbell @ Mar 7th 2008 4:01PM]

You might as well plant a chip into your child if you don't trust them that much.
Parental controls set me off; they're a shoddy excuse for good parenting.

[dcny @ Dec 10th 2007 10:49AM]

First of all things have changed over the years for parents, i dont have any children but i do have siblings that are teens, and how often do you trust teens they lie all the time. if you have children have your children ever lied to you yes. example if you call your child ask where are they at, they can easily lie i've done it before so i know others will to

[dcny @ Sep 27th 2007 3:30PM]

Are there any mvno's still in business longer than a year besides tracfone/net 10, virgin & helio.
You'd think a disney company could keep itself from going out of business

[JS @ Sep 27th 2007 5:43PM]

true, but companies like Disney don't hang around for centuries by squeezing blood from stones

more like from mice...

[simon @ Sep 27th 2007 7:32PM]

What killed them was charging back indirects if the customer only has a suspension of service in the first 6 mos. (Industry standard for a chargeback is complete disconnection of service in the first 6 mos.) Couple that with no local payment centers (until about two weeks ago) and you can bet on a customer having their service temporarily disconnected, the store that sold them the service getting charged back, and then those carriers then proceeding to pull disney mobile.

[memodude @ Oct 4th 2007 12:54AM]

huh?

[tc1uscg @ Sep 28th 2007 1:18AM]

Has nothing to do with bad parenting. The question is, what has happened to society that requires a parent to get thier kid a phone like this? It had other features that made it a nice phone for a tween. Only an idiot can't see why having control of your tween's phone is such a nice feature, till you go pay for those extra 600 messages that isn't included on your plan. I always loved it when a parent would come into a store, bitching they shouldn't have to pay for the "extra" messages because they can't control what their kid is doing 24hrs a day. Better yet, for a teen, it's a nice tool when they get grounded. You can pretty much shut down the phone except for emergencies while driving home the point as a parent, as long as you pay the bills, you still control their world.

[bh @ Sep 28th 2007 6:09PM]

it was a good product with bad managment (disney) they didn't have a clue!! you can't sell a product on name alone and advertising is still required to get infront of the customer, just in case mickey mobile is in the future for disney, you never know 3 times could be the charm!! as a dealer selling them its not like we didn't see this coming! to many problems and no reaction from disney mobile to fix them!! charge back after charge back after charge back, they did nothing to keep the customers they had!!

[S.G. @ Oct 7th 2007 3:10PM]

I agree. I have had Disney Mobile for nearly a year and I am highly upset that they are closing their doors. However, I am none too suprised. Their customer service was VERY shoddy... not something I would expect from Disney. I had three phones and each time I activated one, it would take me at least three phone calls to get the service connected correctly. It seemed like the right hand never knew what the left was doing. And hardly saw a single commercial advertisement. I will really miss their features... I don't see anything else like it on the market, except in the u.k. So my son will be very disappointed when we have to take back last year's Christmas present for no apparent reason. Why does a kid need a phone you ask? Because he's a very much loved, red-blooded, spoiled, American child. And the features? Not because I don't trust him, but because I don't trust everyone else.

[Costas @ Sep 30th 2007 4:06PM]

Happy New Y......

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