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voce posts

Voce indeed dead, execs let go by phone disconnections

by Nilay Patel posted Feb 6th 2008 @ 4:48PM

Alright, we'll definitely cop to having broken off a relationship or two via text message, but we don't think we've ever heard of a high-ranking executive discovering he'd been fired when his phone stopped working -- which is exactly what happened to Roy Kosuge, COO of Voce, that "luxury" MVNO. We'd heard rumors of Voce's demise, but it looks like ol' Roy wasn't so plugged in, only finding out that his company was dead when his phone stopped making calls. Of course, when a company's chief operating officer doesn't know that you're about to kill the lights, it's a safe bet that things are pretty screwed up, so if you were among the few who signed up for Voce's premium services, we'd recommend calling your credit card company immed -- oh, right. Sorry about that.

Did Voce die overnight, without warning?

by Ryan Block posted Feb 2nd 2008 @ 11:41AM

We don't yet know for sure what's up, but we're hearing that customers of Voce, the luxury MVNO based on AT&T's network, woke up on February 1st to zero service, dead customer service lines, and even some crazier claims like being double-billed for the final month of service. We gave their sales lines -- usually the very last thing to go down -- a ring, and got no reply. It's possible this could be some kind of huge misunderstanding and outage on Voce's part, which we do hope it is, because if they did shut down they certainly did so in about the most abrupt, impudent way imaginable. Either way, looks like guys are going to be out for the count -- we wouldn't exactly expect a mobile phone provider to go completely dark, ignore its customers for days, and expect to retain any business.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Luxury MVNO Voce gets going in LA

by Paul Miller posted May 4th 2006 @ 6:16AM

Ah yes, Voce. That priciest of all MVNOs is starting to get rolling in LA with an invitation-only trial capped at 500 people, with plans to add New York and San Francisco this fall. Right now they only have service based on Cingular's GSM network, and since Cingular doesn't fork over data usage to MVNOs, the Voce service is voice only. Though at these prices, they obviously figure you're too stupid to use cellular data. The service has a $1000 joining fee, plus a $400 monthly fee, which includes unlimited minutes, a free leather-clad RAZR or black Nokia 8810, and certain VIP privileges like a 24 hour personal assistant and travel perks. There's also an annual device upgrade included, which will probably feel quite welcome by the time it arrives with as old as those phones are already. Voce does plan to offer data in the future by partnering with a CDMA carrier, but for now this MVNO's offerings aren't only ridiculously pricey, but nearly non-functional for all but the most casual of phone users.

[Via Phone Scoop]