Molecularist

While we are on the subject of MVNOs, here’s a really good article on the ESPN failure and the strength of Helio (link below).

I think MVNOs are great, mostly for their ability to hit niches. I’ve even seen a premium MVNO (thanks, Mojo).

My dream is that setting up an MVNO would be as simple as setting up a Website. Go online, fill in a form, and, BANG, you are a service provider.

My thought is that school groups, university teams, churches, and such could promote their community, provide an affordable service to folks they know, and even get a cut of the profit.

The article below suggests that an MVNO can be profitable with few hundred thousand subscribers. Heck, I want it profitable with a few tens so that MVNO’s can sprout up as fast as blogs or weeds can.

What do you think?

Link: Mobile ESPN falls and a Helio rises – Oct. 18, 2006.

But ESPN’s foray into wireless services stumbled badly. Last month – just eight months after its launch – Disney pulled the plug. Countless post mortems in the weeks since have pronounced the nascent MVNO market dead.

Ever get fed up with high roaming costs? I don’t know about you, but I pay something like a euro to receive or make calls when roaming.

Well, here’s a really interesting MVNO that makes receiving call free (like normal, for us here in Europe) and making calls, for the most part, inexpensive. And the text message costs are not so bad either. No data though.

Now, all we need is a few more of these to drive the prices down more. I think this is a good start.

Go read about it. And let me know if you give it a try.

Link [thanks Peter]: Welcome To WorldSIM™ The Global Roaming SIM card.

WorldSIM is a Pay As You Go service that allows you to use your mobile phone when you are travelling abroad without incurring expensive roaming, calling, or texting charges.

A really good article on why Palm’s deal with Vodafone was a non-deal. And it’s not just a Europe vs. US thing. It’s really partly based on market competition. Read it for yourself.

It also has a nice aside on European mobile phone table etiquette. Very funny – check out the graphic. He has more funny comparisons in a follow-on article.

Link [thanks Franklin!]: Mobile Opportunity: What if Palm made a smartphone and nobody cared?.

These must be frustrating times for the people at Palm.

The company recently pre-announced that it’s creating a 3G Treo for sale through Vodafone later this year. This was a very important breakthrough for Palm. It has been trying for years to get broader distribution for its smartphones in Europe, without great success. Now the world’s largest mobile operator is embracing the company, and saying specifically that it’ll offer the new Treo in at least the UK, Germany, Spain, Italy, and the Netherlands. That’s a huge increase in reach for Palm, and it should help to produce incremental sales for the company.

What was Wall Street reaction to the announcement? Nothing. No change at all in the company’s stock price.

And it’s not only simple – they do one thing, and one thing well, step-by-step.

Go deep, then broad.

It doesn’t have to be flashy. You don’t have to do everything at once.