Helio Hybrid, RIP: 2006

Helio Hybrid, RIP: 2006 - 2007

by Chris Ziegler, posted Apr 18th 2007 at 5:15PM

Helio has officially cut down its Hybrid EV-DO / WiFi data card down in its prime. Actually, we're not sure if the Hybrid was cut down before its prime, in its prime, or past its prime -- but any way you slice it, it's toast. The move is going down pretty quickly, too; no new Hybrids are being sold, and existing customers will be switched off as of May 8 (though they're "welcome" to keep the deactivated card, according to the announcement). Folks who also have a voice line activated with Helio will be given a month of free service for their troubles, but we imagine that's little consolation to the poor laptops mercilessly stripped of hotspot and EV-DO access in the discontinuation's aftermath. Was it Helio's stingy 160MB limit that ultimately lead to the Hybrid's demise? We may never know -- but given Helio's cozy relationship with Earthlink and Boingo, we'd be pretty surprised if the MVNO were out of the dedicated data business for good.

[Thanks, Brent S.]

Filed under: Peripherals, Helio, 1xRTT, EV-DO, MVNOs, CDMA

Tags: boingo, data, data card, DataCard, helio, hybrid, laptop, modem, pc card, PcCard

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

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Jason Catudal @ Apr 22nd 2007 12:55PM

haha, great article man. the part about toast killed me. wow.

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