H2O Wireless’ Verizon MVNO enVie Mobile is shutting down. A notice was put up on the homepage of the website stating that the service was shutting down and customers needed to shift their accounts over to enVie’s parent H2O Wireless.
EnVie Mobile was launched in October 2014 by H2O Wireless and while the plans were pretty good at first, the small dealer was unable to keep up with the ever-changing competition in the prepaid industry. As a result, its plans were some of the more expensive, and it seems like H2O has finally had enough.
According to sources, the shutdown was first announced to dealers. In the email sent to dealers, it is said that the shutdown would be ‘effective immediately’ and that enVie Mobile customers will be provided with a free H2O $40 monthly service plan to enVie customers. The $40 plan comes with unlimited nationwide talk and text, unlimited international texting, unlimited international calling to 50 countries, and 8 GB of data, with unlimited 2G speeds after the high speed has been used.
There is a catch though: H2O is an AT&T MVNO, which means that it doesn’t use the same network as enVie Mobile did. While newer devices will be able to access the right GSM frequencies, cheaper devices may not be able to be carried over to H2O. If you’re on enVie Mobile, contact H2O and port out.
At the moment, it’s a little unclear exactly why enVie Mobile is shutting down. In the letter, H2O said it was due to “persistent underlying carrier issues” which may simply mean that the carrier didn’t have enough customers and sway to stay competitive. The enVie Mobile website states that the shutdown is “due to circumstances beyond our control with our underlying carrier.”
Regardless, if you’re on enVie Mobile, then you’ll probably want to port out sooner rather than later. For information, contact H2O at 1-800-420-6980 to re-establish service and discuss options.]]>
