The story
At the time of its public launch in 2002, SMS.ac made history by signing up "nearly 6 million users in its first six months – making it the fastest product launch in Internet history".
In 2005, SMS.ac was recognized as one of "the top emerging companies in the Wireless industry" by Fierce Wireless's "Fierce 15". An article by the Chicago Tribune described "a clever text-messaging ploy" whereby users provide their e-mail address and password in response to a message to join.
In 2006 an article in the International Herald Tribune, while praising the service's integrated billing option, stated "SMS.ac is one of those right-place, right-time, right-technology companies that has nearly all the elements for colossal success. But it also has hovering over it a big red flag that could wrong-foot it at any moment as some consumers had complained on the Internet and in the mainstream press that SMS.ac has charged them for services they never asked for, making that billing relationship into potentially its greatest liability."
In 2007, SMS.ac created a DBA called FanBox, a social networking mobile desktop site.
In 2008, SMS.ac was fined £250,000 by the UK premium rate regulator, PhonepayPlus, for operating misleading and unfair mobile-terminating text message services without giving proper pricing information, and barred from operating reverse-billed services in the UK until it became compliant with the PhonepayPlus compliance rules. Following the ruling SMS.ac brought their practices into compliance with UK regulations.
On 18 July 2009 the alleged unfair labor practices of SMS.ac subsidiary, FanBox were reported by San Diego 6 News. In the coverage, former employees claimed they often received partial paychecks if they were paid at all.
From Wikipedia’s article on SMS.ac, Inc., shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.3