R.I.P., Mobile ESPN

Well, the news ripped through the MVNO Strategies and Markets conference in New York like a tornado. Mobile ESPN, one of the pillars of the US MVNO market, yet dogged by press and investor questions about its slow growth, has decided to shut its doors, "as soon as today," according to the Wall Street Journal, in order to focus on being a broadly-distributed content provider.

What does this mean for the US MVNO market? I'd said earlier this month that the success of Mobile ESPN, along with Disney Mobile and Helio, was crucial for the long-term health of the US MVNO market. Now one of them is gone. More opportunity for the remainder? Or a sign of things to come?

innovation, mobile, MVNO