AmpdMobile
Latest
Qualcomm taps former Amp'd chief Bill Stone to head FLO TV
Bill Stone has already had one tough job thrust upon him when he was named CEO of the troubled Amp'd Mobile, and Qualcomm seems to think that he's the guy to handle another pretty difficult task, with the company recently naming him president of FLO TV, not to mention senior vice president of Qualcomm. Stone, who's currently the CEO of mobile software firm Handango, will be replacing Gina Lombardi, who had been heading up Qualcomm's mobile TV initiatives for the past three years, and will apparently be staying on with Qualcomm in some other, unspecified capacity. No word on what the move means for Handango, but Stone will officially be taking the reins at FLO TV on February 2nd.
Amp'd sez network goes dark at midnight, suggests Prexar
The latest word from Amp'd -- also known as the Defunct MVNO That Wouldn't Die -- is that its network will finally be shut down (for real this time) tonight at midnight. Interestingly, the latest text message sent out to customers still using its phones suggests that they port to Prexar Mobile, a darkhorse that has just acquired "strategic wireless assets" from Amp'd, presumably in a bid to make the port process as seamless as possible. Customers will be able to continue to use their Amp'd phones (though without all the Amp'd content, we'd guess) and will have to sign up for a Prexar plan, at which point they'll be granted 100 free text messages. Whoopee.
Amp'd revises shutoff date: July 31 at the earliest
Verizon has got to be rolling its eyes at this one. We're not too sure what's going on behind the scenes here, but Amp'd has seemingly somehow bought itself a few additional days of life on Verizon's backbone, moving its drop-dead date forward one week to next Tuesday, July 31. For customers -- or ex-customers, as the case may be -- expecting to wake up this morning and find a bricked Amp'd handset, we imagine this is probably a welcome reprieve. The frequently-asked questions list still claims customer service is dead as of the 23rd, though, so don't expect to get chatty with any Amp'd peeps this week.
Amp'd Mobile to shut down July 24 at 12:01am?
Bankrupt, outta luck Amp'd Mobile sent out a text message this evening -- seemingly to its entire customer base -- unceremoniously stating that service "may" dry up this coming Tuesday at 12:01am. Get those number ports fired up, folks.Update: Make sure to hit the "Read" link for full details on how the shutdown will affect customers (i.e. can I keep my phone? my contacts? all that freakin' digital schwag I switched carriers to buy?). Interestingly enough, the main Amp'd page is still buzzing along as if nothing was wrong, and it actually took us quite a few minutes to locate the tiny graphic linking to the FAQ.[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]
Best Buy wastes no time throwing Amp'd out of stores
It's hard to say just how long this plan has been brewing, but it seems awfully suspicious that Best Buy and Amp'd parted ways on the very same day that Amp'd decided to sell itself off bit by bit, does it not? Best Buy's weekend employee flier unceremoniously declares that July 20 marks the end of in-store sales -- probably a good idea, we figure, considering that the phones may stop functioning in a few days -- with teams coming in to yank down ads and take hardware. We're also hearing that online account activations aren't working at this point, so getting a new Amp'd handset is pretty freaking hard to do at this point -- not to say you'd want one, anyway.[Thanks, anonymous tipster]
Amp'd in death throes, files to sell off assets
Maybe it was Verizon's most recent in-court request to stop serving up costly airwaves for which it couldn't pay, maybe it was the cold reality that it'll allegedly have a mere $9,000 in the bank as of next Monday -- but at any rate, Amp'd Mobile appears ready to throw in the towel. The Verizon-serviced MVNO today filed with a bankruptcy judge to sell substantially all of its assets at auction after discovering that it was unable to line up debtor-in-possession financing, likely setting the stage for a full shutdown in the next few days. After launching less than two years ago to considerable fanfare and burning through a healthy $360 million, it's pretty shocking to see it all go down with such a whimper -- but hey, if you're looking to pick up a Q on the cheap -- that may or may not work on any other network, that is -- this may just be your chance.
