Wired profiles Sky Dayton and the birth of Helio

by Ryan Block, posted Mar 1st 2006 at 12:20PM

Ever wonder how an MVNO, especially one so hyped as Helio, gets started? Well, Wired's got a profile on the days of foundry at Helio, and its inception by EarthLink / Boingo founder Sky Dayton after taking an (awe-)inspiring trip to Korea where he discovered for himself all the insane multimedia phones we here at Engadget Mobile know and love. The idea? Create an MVNO that targets "trendsetters, gadget geeks, gotta-have-it-now guys with credit to burn," i.e., you, the Engadget Mobile reader. Yeah, we might sound a little gushy, but you have to give it up for Helio; after years of our sitting in our little corner complaining about the utter lack of decent phones in the states, it's they who're finally bringing hot Asian devices to the American market. And what's more, they seem like they understand what we want, 3G, features, and style, nothing less. Either way, if nothing else it's an interesting profile of Dayton and the beginnings of a new wireless company, if that's your kind of thing.

Filed under: Helio, MVNOs

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Neutral

Scott @ Mar 1st 2006 12:55PM

Here's the link to the beginning of the article: http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/14.03/helio.html?pg=1&topic=helio&topic_set=

The one in the main post takes you to page 3.

Neutral

Bessie Burnsed @ Mar 1st 2006 1:44PM

I love this color. Salmon Pink

Neutral

Matt @ Mar 1st 2006 2:04PM

Maybe today's the day?

Neutral

He Hate Me @ Mar 2nd 2006 1:29AM

Scientologist. Does Xenu approve?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sky_Dayton

Neutral

kelly Denison-Cole @ Mar 2nd 2006 1:41AM

earthlink stinks to high heaven and that dude looks like an asshole.
is he really at the beach?

Neutral

Mr. T @ Mar 2nd 2006 9:31PM

Wow, nice handjob Wired. I've been hearing about Helio for almost a year now. From what I hear, the Koreans are holding up a lot because they don't like the marketing plans, they don't like the product roll out timlines, etc.. So until I actually see something, I won't believe it. I've used Pantech handsets and they are sweet, so that would be cool, but I know of other youth MVNO's that will be releasing it. The Myspace thing is cool, but News Corp. is already screwing that property up and all the younger gen I know are starting to get fed up with it. The only people who are still all over it are the late comers who just signed up over the past 18 months. Besides Myspace isn't optimized for mobile blogging. From what I hear too Helio is having major issues creating cool apps for their LBS. But, hey I guess we'll see. These handjob pieces though are wack, serve him up some softball questions why don't you, it's like a Bush press conference.

Add your comments

Your comments:

Remember me

E-Mail me when someone replies to this comment

Please keep your comments relevant to this blog entry. Email addresses are never displayed, but they are required to confirm your comments.

When you enter your name and email address, you'll be sent a link to confirm your comment, and a password. To leave another comment, just use that password.

To create a live link, simply type the URL (including http://) or email address and we will make it a live link for you. You can put up to 3 URLs in your comments. Line breaks and paragraphs are automatically converted — no need to use <p> or <br /> tags.