| |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||
Investors in bankrupt network operator Amp'd Mobile Inc. and troubled Internet phone company SunRocket Inc. can't be too happy, after investing a collective $430 million into the two companies. But its the customers that are in a real tizzy, posting on various message boards and penning blog entries rife with woe and confusion. The fact that they're confused isn't too surprising. The assets of each service provider have tread slightly confusing paths, though they both ended up in the same place. Amp'd Mobile sold its assets to a firm called Prexar Mobile, a company held by United Systems Access Telecom Inc. United Systems also purchased the assets of SunRocket through the recently created TeleBlend. The purchase prices of each were undisclosed, but venture capitalists poured $80 million into SunRocket and more than $350 million into Amp'd Mobile. Those firms include Intel Capital, Viacom, DCM and Mayfield Fund. Bill Fogg, CEO of USA Telephone (the name United Systems Access does business under), is encouraging despondent customers to switch over. He said USA Telephone did not buy customer lists or accounts from Amp'd or SunRocket, so it is relying on users to transfer their accounts on an opt-in basis. Fogg's got a high pressure sales pitch, essentially pleading with customer to transfer by Tuesday night if they are Amp's Mobile customers and soon if they are SunRocket customers. "If they are to transition to a provider please do it very, very soon," Fogg told Tech Confidential. "If they want to maintain communications, go somewhere soon." So far about 50,000 of SunRocket's 200,000 customers have ported their numbers to TeleBlend, Fogg said. He would not release figures for Amp'd Mobile's customers, but since Amp'd's bankruptcy was caused in part because half of its customers didn't pay their bills, it's unlikely Prexar wants to embrace all Amp'd subscribers. Fogg also was tight-lipped about USA Telephone, saying it was privately backed by undisclosed investors. The firm operates a wireline and long-distance competitive local exchange business in the northeastern U.S. and has about 200,000 customers. It has been busy in July buying up troubled assets, as well as spending $30 million to buy the CLEC division of MobilePro Corp. Fogg says the company has made at least three other acquisitions since 1999, but he said he couldn't provide details on them. As other mobile network operators or perhaps other voice-over-Internet-protocol phone providers fall by the wayside, USA Telephone might be there to scoop them up. —Stacey Higginbotham
See June 6 story in TheDeal.com Tags: Amp'd, Sun Rocket, telecom, voip, wireless
Comments
From: Stacey Higginbotham,
TeleBlend is a newly formed company and brand created by USA Telephone to enter the VoIP market, so it makes sense that the name was registered so recently, (likely as soon as USA Telephone began talks to get the SunRocket assets.) Bill Fogg, CEO of Telephone USA said his company was planning on creating a VoIP offering as well as a wireless offering, and the demises of SunRocket and Amp'd Mobile sped up their timetable for doing so. However, USA Telephone as the parent company has been around since 1999 and has filed the appropriate documents that allow it to do business in the states where it offers wireline and long distance service. It's private, so information about its financials are unavailable, but it still has more operating experience than SunRocket, which was founded in 2004, did. As to whether you should trust TeleBlend, that's up to you, but I'm happy to provide you with what I know.
Posted on:
August 1, 2007 4:23 PM
From: JP 121,
after many hours of research, I found a great company called VIATALK They offer a plan $199 a year for unlimited calling, just like sunrocket and they will give you in addition to the plan they offer you, up to 6 months free service , only if you were a sunrocket customer. for example , if you sign up for their service for $199 a year and had been a customer of sunrocket and you had 4 months left on your sunrocket plan.. they will give you 4 months free here is the link.. copy and paste this link in your browser http://affiliatecenter.viatalk.com/idevaffiliate.php?id=5099
Posted on:
August 3, 2007 5:32 PM
 Deal Video
    Community
 Elsewhere on The Deal.comDealwatch
The Deal MagazineCorporate Dealmaker
The Deal VideoCategories
Blog roll
Archives
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||
Yeah, I'm looking at Whois data for Teleblend: Their domain was registered on 17-Jul-07. So these guys registered their domain two weeks ago and you're expecting me to trust them?
I'd better switch to somebody who has been on the market long enough. From what I’ve found out after looking through the Internet is that Lingo, ViaTalk and JoiPhone are also highly capable of quickly transferring SunRocket phone numbers. All of them have special promos for ex-Sunrocket customers. ViaTalk for example has a 3 month contract buyout for ex-SR customers and two phone lines for the price of one.