Luxury MVNO Voce Wireless Goes Dark

Customers of the pricey virtual cellular operator are complaining that their phones went dead on Friday, without warning, and now there are grumblings of a class-action lawsuit.

It's still not clear what happened to Voce Wireless, a "premium" MVNO (or mobile virtual network operator—a "virtual" carrier that piggybacks on another network) that initially charged customers a whopping $1,000 signup fee and $400 a month for flashy phones, unlimited minutes and "white glove" customer service. (Voce slashed its prices in half in late 2006.)

The Voce Web page is still up, and there's been no official word from the virtual network operator (which runs—or used to run, at least—over AT&T's cellular network).

However, both Engadget and The Boy Genius Report are reporting that Voce subscribers awoke Friday morning to no service and dead customer support lines. Customers also say they were double-billed in January, which may have signaled that their January statements were their last.

Meanwhile, a Web site calling for a class-action lawsuit against Voce went live over the weekend, with dozens of angry posters saying they'd managed (luckily) to port their numbers to other carriers. 

If Voce is indeed gone for good (we'll have to wait for official word until we know for sure), it represents yet another formerly high-flying MVNO that's bitten the dust.

MVNOs from ESPN and Disney Mobile crashed and burned in 2006 and late 2007, respectively, and the hip Amp'd Mobile went dark last summer. Helio—the MVNO that offers such cool phones as the Ocean and the Fin—is still around, but it's been burning through cash at a furious rate, and its founding CEO just stepped down.

Update: FierceWireless reports that Voce has, indeed, shut down for good.

Related:
Did Voce die overnight, without warning? [Engadget]
Voce bites the dust, leaves customers stranded [The Boy Genius Report]