Nada Collar

This is certainly a form of revenue sharing that I didn’t see coming. Sonopia have just launched a DIY MVNO (Do it Yourself Mobile Virtual Network Operator).
They use Verizon as the carrier and provide a service whereby you can setup a network and receive 3%-8% of the revenues generated from the users you enlist on your virtual network.

It would seem ideal for non-profits, schools, community groups etc as a fund raiser. I imagine that will be its core market.

I can only imagine the schemes that are going to pop up around the internet for using this service. Although I suspect that the type of schemes would be - get your commission back etc - and the type of people that sign up for such a scheme are more likely to buy the cheapest service they can find (which would not be Verizon)

Michael Arrington of TechCrunch reviewed the service and came to the conclusion that their user experience was a little lacking. It seems that its difficult to use their website for creating or managing a network. They will certainly need to fix this issue if they want to stay out of the TechCrunch deadpool.

I have not tried to setup a network but two immediate problems I see with their service relate to the user experience also.

1. Plans?
There are no mention of plans. I’d be interested to know what kind of plans they will offer, but I don’t want to sign up to find out. Maybe they are relying on the Group itself to inform its customers about the plans, but it would be nice for some sample plans for general users.

2. Association Validity.
How do I know that the Sonopia Group is run by who it says it is? If I got some marketing material from that association then I could assume that everything is legit. But if I just look through the list of available Groups then I could be giving my money to anyone.

I assume that the associations list on the front Sonopia page (National Wildlife Federation, National Parks Conservation Association) have been enlisted by Sonopia themselves. However they all have pages on Sonopia NOT on their own sites.

If you go to “Join a Sonopia” you see a listing for World Ocean Federation. How do you know that it really belongs to World Ocean Federation? Has someone just picked a well known charity and is hoping to cash in?

Sonopia, please make associations add a link to their own websites with news about their partnership with Sonopia. Then I can be more confident that my money is going to the World Ocean Federation and not John Smith of Las Vegas.