Amp’d files for Bankruptcy Protection

On June 1st, Amp’d Mobile officially announced they had filed for Chapter 11: Bankruptcy Protection. A press release on the Amp’d site explains that with an increase in growth, the company has been unable to keep up with customer demands and is seeking government protection to help stabilize the weakening financial status of the company.

With about 200,000 subscribers, Amp’d has about 80,000 non-paying customers. With several debts, this clearly has created a problem for the company. The Chapter 11 files indicated that Amp’d owes over $33 million to Verizon Wireless and another $16 million to Motorola. Total debts are around $100 million.

So, will Amp’d be able to get past this $100 hurdle and not fall victim like ESPN Mobile did last year? It seems that while mobile users are interested in the services provided by the Amp’d and ESPN networks, perhaps the problem is figuring out a better pricing model. Mobile phone subscribers are going to continue to be reluctant to shed additional dollars for an over priced service.

Amp’d Mobile was established in December, 2005 and works with the MTV network and Universal Music Group (to name a few) as a Mobile Virtual Network Operator (MVNO) to proved music, videos and entertainment content to subscribers mobile devices.