I would just like to clear up a rumor that has been floating around the web, but first let me give you some back story. Amp’d Mobile was a mobile phone service launched in 2005. Its biggest draw was that it delivered rich media content through its hand set devices. Its biggest problem was a rather dubious business model mixed with a healthy disinterest in running standard credit checks on its subscribers.

The one problem it did not have, which you may have read elsewhere, is purchasing adult DVDs and then listing them as intellectual property.

Let me backtrack.

Amp’d Mobile

The story went that Amp’d Mobile’s asset sheet contained such goodies as “Gold Digger” and “Hot Dish” listed on the auction block alongside other more traditional pieces of intellectual property. The assertion was that these “assets” were, how we say it, “adult in nature”. From the titles I can easily see how this mistake could have been made.

As it turns out, the truth is often far less interesting that the speculation. Instead of running a adult film studio in their basement, Amp’d simple had a penchant for some pretty tasteless content. “Gold Digger” is actually the title of a program on the network where women try to get men to spend as much money as they can on them, most of the rest of the titles in this set are of a similar stripe.

The lesson here, check your sources.

Web 2.0 Roundup

Then again, when a company manages to burn $350 Million in Venture funding by buying plasma TVs, flying their CEO around in private helicopters, losing customer data, and having customer service that makes AT&T look like a gem — nothing should really be that surprising.

Amp’d subscribers, tell me, where are you moving your cellular service to after the discontinuation? Share your horror stories here, or send me an email.

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