Virgin Mobile USA is cutting off its postpaid Helio users on May 25, according to multiple reports.
Virgin Mobile, now owned by Sprint Nextel Corp., will give Helio customers $50 toward the purchase of a Sprint postpaid handset with a new two-year agreement, MobileCrunch reported. Otherwise, those subscribers will lose their service since Sprint is focusing on a prepaid-only strategy for its MVNO subsidiaries.
There are approximately 86,000 Helio users who will be upended.
Helio was founded by EarthLink and SK Telecom out of Korea – that is, until EarthLink decided in 2007 to stop funding Helio and SK Telecom sold the assets to Virgin Mobile in 2008. Helio was known for cutting-edge phones that provided Internet service before most other devices did.
