Amp'd Mobile

2006

At the end of 2006, Amp'd Mobile had over 100,000 subscribers. 89 percent of its customer base was on postpaid contracts, and its total average revenue per user was “well over” $100 per month.

2007

Amp'd Mobile filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on June 1, 2007. Its subscriber base at the end of the first quarter was about 175,000 customers.

On July 20, Amp'd announced its intentions to sell off all its assets at auction. In addition, Best Buy discontinued carrying the Amp'd post-paid service.

On July 21, 2007, text messages began to be sent to Amp'd Mobile customer phones that stated: Your service may be disconnected on 7.24 @ 12:01 am. Go to www.ampd.com or contact the location where you activated your service for further information.

On July 24, 2007, Amp'd website updated its FAQ with potential service disconnection pushed back to July 31, 2007.

On July 31, 2007, Amp'd sent a text message: Ampd service ends @midnight 8/1. Keep your Ampd phone and get 100 free TXT by switching to Prexar Mobile. For info, go to http://www.prexarmobile.com As of June 2008, the Prexar Mobile website and brand are defunct.

Services

Amp'd Live

Amp'd mobile's service was built around Amp'd Live, a permanently installed BREW application on all Amp'd CDMA phones, which featured downloadable and streaming video on-demand clips, live events such as Supercross, streaming phonecast radio stations, downloadable content such as games, ringtones, and songs.

Amp'd Live TV channels included Comedy Central Mobile, MTV Mobile, Spike TV, Oxygen Mobile, MTVU, VH1, LOGO, UFC TV, Fox News, Fox Sports, Playboy Mobile, Discovery Mobile, History Channel, A&E, Biography Channel, Style, Break TV, E!, WE Mobile, Speed, NBA TV, Girls Gone Wild TV, and Adult Swim Mobile. The adult animated series Lil' Bush aired on Amp'd Live TV before being picked up by Comedy Central.

Service shutdown

Amp'd sent out a text message to all of its users on July 22, 2007 stating that as of July 24, 12:01 a.m. they would be discontinuing all services. This date was later extended to July 31, 2007.

On the evening of July 23, the Amp'd website indicated that customer service would no longer be available. The fate of mobile phone numbers for existing customers who have not yet ported to another carrier was still unknown.

Criticism

Customer service

A major complaint about Amp'd Mobile was its lack of customer service. Problems activating the service and plans not matching those advertised on the company's website had been reported. Getting in contact with customer service proved to be a large issue. Many customers claimed to have found themselves on hold via phone support for hours, only to be hung up on. Also, instances of mail-in rebates being "lost" or never fulfilled had been reported. Amp'd customer service was contracted to ClientLogic at launch.

Support was later handled by Sento Corporation, but some time after the bankruptcy filing this support had ended, which had forced Sento to lay off around 200 people in Albuquerque, New Mexico and Orem, Utah.