Voce flames out, another MVNO casualty: COO discovered he’d been fired when phone disconnected

Voce’s promises are now just a hollow echo of P.T. Barnum’s famous dictum, “there’s a sucker born every minute.”
“The ultimate service,” the now-defunct mobile virtual network operator’s Web site still assures viewers. “Voce redefines customer care.”
In the case of Voce, which disconnected its customers’ phones Friday without notice after attempting to bill them in advance for February service, “redefining customer care” has acquired a new meaning.
The service, once touted as a luxury offering, is dead. The former COO, Roy Kosuge, discovered that he’d been fired when is phone line was disconnected, he told the Los Angeles Times.
According to media sources, including customers posting their indignant responses, several thousand people awoke last Friday to find their handsets bricked. That was too late for porting their numbers to another carrier. Many former customers found that they’d been double-billed in the month of January.
According to the L.A. Times, Voce’s owner, Faith Communications Inc., had transferred in January to SunCal Midwest, a subsidiary of Chicago-based SunCal Funds. Brian Richards, the head of SunCal Funds, couldn’t be reached by the L.A. Times — his mobile phone, from Voce, had been disconnected. Employees were not paid since the transfer, according to the L.A. Times.
“Please call me,” pleaded one former customer on a Yahoo thread devoted to Voce’s sudden demise. “I have Voce … I have been over-billed and need to figure out what’s going on. This is ridiculous.”
Phone calls to Voce representatives at retail boutiques in Beverly Hills and at Saks Fifth Avenue in New York went unanswered. AT&T Mobility, which inherited the MVNO’s business from its predecessor, Cingular Wireless L.L.C., did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Voce is merely the latest, though the messiest, MVNO to go down. Other MVNOs that have shut down in the recent past include Amp’d Mobile Inc., Mobile ESPN, Disney Mobile (since transplanted to Japan) and XE Mobile.
Virgin Mobile USA Inc. and Helio L.L.C. continue to ply the choppy waters of the MVNO business, with Virgin Mobile USA launching an IPO in October. Both Virgin Mobile USA and Helio have been struggling with financial losses.
Voce, the premium MVNO, had a retail presence at two branded boutiques in California (Beverly Hills and Los Angeles), and a presence in Neiman Marcus department stores in Arizona, California, Florida, New Jersey and Nevada, and at Saks Fifth Avenue stores in Florida, New York and Texas.
Voce was estimated to have only about 2,000 subscribers. The MVNO launched in 2006 and had offered premium handsets such as the Prada by LG Electronics Co., the N95 by Nokia Corp., the W880i by Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications and the Krzr by Motorola Inc. In 2006, the service — unlimited calls, plus a 24/7 personal-assistance service for odd questions, errands and requests — required a $500 “initiation fee” and $200 per month. Last year, Voce dropped the initiation fee and charged $118 per month.
Apparently, whoever is going to be on the receiving end of a presumed string of subscriber lawsuits has not shut off the phone lines at the company’s stores, nor have they taken down the MVNO’s Web site.
“The Finest Phones,” still reads the company’s Web-based pitch. “Premium. Smart. Fabulous.”