In a sad coda to a long story of failed promise, Virgin Mobile confirmed Tuesday that they’ll finally cut off the 86,000 remaining customers of the old Helio wireless carrier. On May 25th, former Helio customers–also known as “Virgin Mobile postpaid” subscribers, different from Virgin Mobile’s thriving prepaid business–will be forced to move over to Sprint or lose their service.
Alas, they will also lose the use of their groundbreaking Ocean and Ocean 2 phones, which were some of the world’s best texting and messaging devices when they first came out. Helio’s Ocean line, built by Pantech, pioneered the merger of social networking and multiple accounts into a single contact book, paving the way for popular features like Palm’s Synergy.
Virgin’s Corinne Nosal said that Helions will get $50 off the purchase of a new Sprint phone, along with the usual benefits accruing to new Sprint subscribers.
Started by Earthlink and the Korean mobile operator SK Telecom, Helio was originally conceived of as a power-user’s mobile carrier, bringing cutting-edge phones and Internet services to the U.S. But even before launch, it reinvented itself with a confusing identity having something to do with youth and social networking. Helio bumbled along until 2008, when it was picked up by Virgin Mobile for $39 million. Virgin Mobile then kept selling postpaid Helio phones in a lackluster way, because its true heart is in its prepaid business.
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