Is Hop-On Really Becoming An MVNO?
How quickly people forget. Hop-On Wireless has been able to get a tremendous amount of press over the years, for not doing very much -- and when they did do stuff, it was often very questionable things. Three years ago, much of their story about "disposable phones" was exposed as a scam. The company didn't actually have any phones. They were simply chopping up Nokia phones and showing them as if they were Hop-On phones. They also did things like announcing retail distribution partners after having a single meeting with companies, who later said they had no interest in working with Hop-On. Then there were things like not filing income tax returns for two years, being charged with fleecing investors out of more than $20 million and having their CEO arrested for fraud. The company claims to have reformed. They merged with some other company that makes phone accessories, and it appears that they have replaced plenty of their original executive staff. However, given that history, it still pays to be skeptical -- which is our response to the latest news that they're going to become an MVNO to go along with their cheap phones (no longer "disposable," apparently). Of course, they don't announce a network operator partner, so it sounds like this is more in the idea stage than anything concrete just yet. It may be that the company is actually doing something real these days, but, given their history, color me doubtful.Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
Reader Comments
Subscribe: RSS
View by: Time | Thread
Is Hop-On Really Becoming An MVNO?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Dan Gannon
[ link to this | view in chronology ]