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Helio is an MVNO wireless carrier launched on May 2, 2006. It was founded by Earthlink founder Sky Dayton. It is the joint venture between SK Telecom (a South Korean CDMA mobile telecom) and Earthlink.
On January 26, 2005, Earthlink and SK Telecom announced to the media that they had entered into agreement to launch a new US mobile provider. This provider would operate as a mobile virtual network operator and would lease network capacity from Sprint. The premise of this new company would be to bring advanced mobile devices in service from SK Telecom's home market of Korea to the US wireless market, where such advanced devices had been noted, by many, to be lacking.[1] Helio, as it was to be called, would market itself to the younger demographic, promoting itself using the latest in cutting-edge handset technology. They plan to avoid taking on the major US wireless carriers directly, and instead they intend to carve out a niche for themselves with technology-savvy consumers.[2] Earthlink and SK Telecom agreed to provide financing totaling $440 million US dollars, with each of the two owning 50% of the new company.[3]
In addition to leasing capacity from Sprint Nextel, in the event that Sprint Nextel isn't available, their devices will go into "roaming" mode to use Alltel and voice-only service from Verizon Wireless.
Even though Helio offers unlimited data plans, there is a "reasonable limit" of 160 megabytes of EVDO data usage, going over that limit is considered excessive and abusive. Going over the abusive usage limit could potentially result in the termination of the account.[4]