Ultra Mobile

Ultra Mobile
Private
Industry Telecommunications
Founded 2012 (2012)
Costa Mesa, California, California, U.S.
Headquarters Costa Mesa, California and Long Island City, New York
Key people
 David Glickman (CEO)
Rizwan Kassim (Managing Partner)
Products Prepaid mobile phone services
Subsidiaries Mint Mobile, Inc.
Website ultramobile.com

Ultra Mobile is a Mobile virtual network operator (MVNO), founded in 2012, which sells low-cost prepaid mobile phone services with unlimited international calling and text plans, operating on T-Mobile's cellular network in the United States. They offer unlimited calling to 75 countries, and access to over 200 countries.[1][2]

In 2015, Ultra Mobile was ranked number #1 on Inc. Magazine’s list of the 5,000 fastest growing private companies in the United States, with a year-over-year growth rate of 100,849% and revenues of $118 million in 2014, up from less than a million in 2012. As of 2016, Ultra Mobile was available in over 25,000 retail stores in the US, including Target and 7-Eleven.[3][4][5]

The company's business model is based on selling sim cards which can be used with prepaid plans on unlocked phones. This contrasts to selling long terms contracts with a free or discounted locked phone, a model which is currently more prevalent in the USA than in other parts of the world.[6][7] They also offer the option to limit data download speeds, with three different 'throttle' settings, as to prevent large downloads such as videos from consuming large amounts of bandwidth.[8]

The company was co-Founded by current CEO David Glickman, who has previous founded companies such as TelePacific Communications, Justice Technology, and Primo Connect. Ultra Mobile has approximately 150 employees across the US, Europe, and Asia, and has focused on hiring Millennials.[9][10]

The privately held company has co-headquarters in Costa Mesa, California, and additional offices in Manhattan, NY.

Brands

Ultra Mobile is the company’s flagship brand, which offers broad international calling plans targeted to diverse diasporic communities in the United States, with the company specifically targeting people born outside of the USA.[11]

In January 2016, the company acquired rights from Univision Communications to manage the Univision Mobile brand, another T-Mobile MVNO partner which specializes in US SIM-based international calling plans for calls to Latin American countries.[12][13][14] In May 2017, Ultra Mobile announced that it was closing down the Univision Mobile brand and that it would automatically transfer all Univision Mobile subscribers over to Ultra Mobile.[15]

In August 2016, Ultra Mobile launched Mint Mobile (formerly Mint SIM), an online-only MVNO specializing in prepaid mobile plans on the T-Mobile cellular network, which provides discounted pricing based on monthly terms paid in advance.[16][17][18]

References

  1. ↑ "Ultra Mobile", Inc.com, retrieved 25 Feb 2017
  2. ↑ Dano, Mike (30 June 2014). "MVNO Ultra Mobile adds T-Mobile's LTE service, but scraps mobile payments plan". Fierce Wireless. Retrieved 25 Feb 2017.
  3. ↑ "Ultra Mobile", Inc.com, retrieved 25 Feb 2017
  4. ↑ Kharif, Olga (4 February 2016). "The Phone Companies People Actually Love". Bloomberg Businessweek. Retrieved 25 Feb 2017.
  5. ↑ Blakely, Lindsay (September 2015). "How This Entrepreneur Started America's Fastest-Growing Company (Twice)". Inc. Magazine. Retrieved 26 Feb 2017.
  6. ↑ "Ultra Mobile's Glickman: Customized International Cell Service". Bloomberg. 27 December 2016. Retrieved 28 Feb 2017.
  7. ↑ Dolcourt, Jessica (22 July 2013). "Prepaid or postpaid?: The fight for your cell phone dollars (Smartphones Unlocked)". CNet. Retrieved 28 Feb 2017.
  8. ↑ Wiggers, Kyle (16 December 2016). "Ultra Mobile introduces data-saving 'Data My Way' voluntarily throttling". Digital Trends. Retrieved 28 Feb 2017.
  9. ↑ White, Ronald D (5 February 2017). "Ultra Mobile CEO David Glickman finds his calling". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 25 Feb 2017.
  10. ↑ Glickman, David (26 March 2015). "How I managed millennials to $100 million in sales". CNBC. Retrieved 26 Feb 2017.
  11. ↑ Viscusi, Stefania (15 December 2015). "Ultra Mobile CEO Shares 2016 Telecom Predictions". Real Time Communications. Retrieved 25 Feb 2017.
  12. ↑ Martínez, Laura (29 January 2016). "Univision y T-Mobile ponen fin a su alianza para Univision Mobile". Cnet.com. Retrieved 25 Feb 2017.
  13. ↑ Bournique, Dennis (1 February 2016). "Ultra Mobile Has Acquired Univision Mobile - What it Means To Customers". Prepaid Phone News. Retrieved 25 Feb 2017.
  14. ↑ "Univision Mobile, Powered by Ultra Mobile, to Offer Customers Unlimited Domestic and International Talk and Text", Univision.com, 29 January 2016, retrieved 25 Feb 2017
  15. ↑ JP (2017-05-18). "Ultra Mobile Introduces Flex Plans, Shuts Down Univision Mobile - BestMVNO". BestMVNO. Retrieved 2017-05-27.
  16. ↑ Botha, Jason (2 August 2016). "Mint SIM launches, and plans to change the cellular market". Android Guys. Retrieved 25 Feb 2017.
  17. ↑ Broida, Rick (16 November 2016). "Get three months of Mint SIM cell service for $35". CNet. Retrieved 25 Feb 2017.
  18. ↑ Meyer, Dan (11 January 2017). "Ultra Mobile taps diverse MVNO platforms in battle with established carriers". RCR Wireless News. Retrieved 26 Feb 2017.
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