from fiercewireless ..

Sonopia, the do-it-yourself MVNO venture enabling organizations, charities or individuals to launch branded mobile services through its online service, is reportedly winding down operations. Launched in April 2007 by Juha Christensen, the former head of Microsoft’s mobile division and a founder of Symbian, Sonopia promised each fledgling MVNO a selection of popular handsets, competitive calling plans, premium voice and data services and customized content, including social networking functionality–each sponsoring group received 5 percent of the revenue collected from its subscribers, with Sonopia sharing the remainder with network partners Verizon Wireless and Vodafone Group. Partners spanned from the National Parks Conservation Association to the American Medical Student Association to the Chicago Bandits of the National Pro Fastpitch Women’s Softball League.

The fundamental problem with all these recent failures is “scale.” While I commend these organizations for trying out something new and different, the “scale” equation is based on faith-based strategy and not something grounded in facts. Customer acquisition is much harder than it seems, especially, after you get through the first 70-80K. The other problem is that all these models are easily replicable, so there is no inherent advantage or barriers to entry. If they are successful, these models will copied over a weekend and then what .. Unless, one can line up a few billion in investment for the long haul, it is going to be tough. But, points to Juha for trying out a new business model. It did have some umph! but unfortunately no scale.