Comments on: Build Your Own Third Rate Mobile Network

By: Sports Illustrated

Sports Illustrated — Tue, 30 Oct 2007 13:50:25 +0000

Sports Illustrated…

I couldn’t understand some parts of this article, but it sounds interesting…

By: Amp’d Melts Down, Helio Says They Are Doing Just Fine : Forecast-Blog

Amp’d Melts Down, Helio Says They Are Doing Just Fine : Forecast-Blog — Tue, 05 Jun 2007 10:02:52 +0000

[...] more on MVNO’s, see our coverage of Sonopia (build your own MVNO) and Google’s rumored MVNO in the [...]

By: Amp’d Melts Down, Helio Says They Are Doing Just Fine

Amp’d Melts Down, Helio Says They Are Doing Just Fine — Tue, 05 Jun 2007 10:00:57 +0000

[...] more on MVNO’s, see our coverage of Sonopia (build your own MVNO) and Google’s rumored MVNO in the [...]

By: mel

mel — Tue, 01 May 2007 05:53:58 +0000

Maybe there is an opportunity here,
but with their current approach they’ll certainly never reach it.

By: Frank

Frank — Tue, 01 May 2007 05:50:40 +0000

3-8% of total revenues seems like a juicy offer. I can think of a few friends and acquintances whose phone bills I’d like a revenue percentage from!

By: Mi otro blog… » Blog Archive » Sonopia: Crea tu propio Operador Móvil Virtual

Wed, 18 Apr 2007 20:59:50 +0000

[...] de la Sonopia y cargar una imagen con el logo. De todo lo demás, incluido pagar entre el 3% y el 8% de los beneficios generados por los clientes al administrador de dicho OMV, se encarga Sonopia [...]

By: Jérôme Bourreau Guggenheim

Jérôme Bourreau Guggenheim — Fri, 06 Apr 2007 00:06:05 +0000

It’s a great opportunity for the mobile phone industry. In France, we’ve virtual operators (MVNO) with great offers but the historical market is full and increase less than it was é or 3 years ago.

By: Gordon Ebanks

Gordon Ebanks — Wed, 04 Apr 2007 17:23:36 +0000

I think Sonopia will do very well. They have innovated and yes the UI is not perfect but the game really starts now. It will be a question of how quickly they learn from this rev and how quickly they can get their next rev out.

By: TechCrunch duped again?

TechCrunch duped again? — Wed, 04 Apr 2007 05:09:06 +0000

[...] Arrington covers Sonopia. [...]

By: alex

alex — Tue, 03 Apr 2007 21:39:05 +0000

Opportunity is unlimited for business model. Marketing would be the bottleneck, and such ugly site won’t help it.
PS> Kiev or India - does not matter where it has been done. Microsoft is 90% immigrants’ based for now and so far doing pretty well…The point is that it has been done with a quick and louzy design of web site, not thought well navigation and etc… - just to get it out - typical Microsoft approach…but Microsoft as a company has partners/distributors/marketing personal to sell hald made product - which , unfortunately, this company does not have such luxury with only 9 mln in the pockets… the start is bad - I would say the future is bad for this company…

By: Hyjak

Hyjak — Tue, 03 Apr 2007 17:26:33 +0000

I think you guys dont see the potential gold mine here. Its not that different then having one of those authorized retailers you see in the mall, but now you can enter with no risk or overhead. They do need to improve the sites fuggly interface.

By: notredame

notredame — Tue, 03 Apr 2007 15:44:28 +0000

Hey guys, I have a question.

Is there anything that should stop a 35 person company that uses 35 verizon phones to switch to this service and get a 3-8% kickback?

It seems reasonable to me.

By: pallet jack

pallet jack — Tue, 03 Apr 2007 14:01:36 +0000

The problem is - alot of people ( I would say most) already have cell phones…

- If you could get this on myspace; for groups clubs etc… it could get viral…

- for say - my church had this and I needed a phone I might do it …

- or my soccer team .. Lets say acompany does it - etc…

- then again how can they beat corporate prices already given to my company?

By: Spiel

Spiel — Tue, 03 Apr 2007 11:11:12 +0000

I stopped reading as soon as I saw the company name. This makes me think of mobile service and devices how??

dumb!

By: Mark Smithivas

Mark Smithivas — Tue, 03 Apr 2007 07:44:07 +0000

I think Mike and most of the comments so far are a bit unfair. After all, they have just launched and been live for what, one day? The CEO mentions wanting a low burn rate with no marketing and using most of the $9M for building out R&D. In terms of poor customer service, I can’t think of one major carrier that doesn’t *suck* at one time or another. I think people in general accept bad phone service as de rigeur for the industry. Moreover, people also are willing to accept sub-par service and pricing if they believe they are supporting a cause they like. Look at the neverending proliferation of MLM companies, who mostly sell overpriced products that have cheaper equivalents at the store. They work because people buy for reasons other than what web 2.0 pundits believe.

{disclaimer: I neither sell MLM products nor work for Sonopia}

By: Jean Biri

Jean Biri — Tue, 03 Apr 2007 06:54:38 +0000

Very nice concept but risky. We all know that sooner or later, some clients have problems with their mobile carriers and voice their concerns online sometimes tarnshing the company’s name.

If Sonopia and/or Verizon messes up and the users of my mobile network start airing their frustrations, whose brand will be hit the most? Mine, because my customers are doing business with my company.

On the other hand, 3-8% (and higher) of total revenues seems like a juicy offer. I can think of a few friends and acquintances whose phone bills I’d like a revenue percentage from!

By: RevShare

RevShare — Tue, 03 Apr 2007 05:29:46 +0000

How do I know that the World Ocean Federation virtual network is run by the world ocean federation? There is no link to the WOF.

Maybe I should go and start up a RSPCA mobile network and see how many people want to donate their money to the RSPCA - RevShare’s Personal Coffers Association.

By: NadaCollar.com

NadaCollar.com — Tue, 03 Apr 2007 05:26:33 +0000

Scam your very own mobile network…

How do I know that the Sonopia Group is run by who it says it is?…

By: r9studio

r9studio — Tue, 03 Apr 2007 04:51:36 +0000

http://gizmocall.com is much better i guess

By: km4

km4 — Tue, 03 Apr 2007 01:29:11 +0000

But but but the company has raised $9 million from venture firms ComVentures and Sevin Rosen.

Dumbasses around the table !

By: Wes

Wes — Tue, 03 Apr 2007 01:28:24 +0000

I think more effort was put into providing the service but very little or none at all on usability and therefore at the end of the day the customer experience wont be very good at all.

By: Adam Healey

Adam Healey — Mon, 02 Apr 2007 23:44:37 +0000

Yeah, Mike, you nailed this one. They need to focus waaaaay more on the customer experience and the UI.

It looks like it was built in the Kiev, because it was.

By: Kewtr

Kewtr — Mon, 02 Apr 2007 23:44:11 +0000

I think it’ll take more than a website to make it worthwhile, but who knows. Maybe on a small scale for charities and things, but most people, if they know about the revenue share, will instinctively pull away.

By: Startup Meme » Sonopia Lets You Build a Mobile ‘Social’ Network

Startup Meme » Sonopia Lets You Build a Mobile ‘Social’ Network — Mon, 02 Apr 2007 23:21:49 +0000

[...] Techcrunch, GigaOm and [...]

By: Dan

Dan — Mon, 02 Apr 2007 22:47:12 +0000

The idea itself is very cool. Just imagine the opportunities that can be created with this sort of thing in developing markets! Talk about empowerment…

It’ll be really nice when a different startup executes it well…

(9 million in VC funding for a site like this?!? Wow… Who do I talk to about getting a piece of that for helping with the re-design?