Is the reason for so many MVNO failures due to the fact these companies can’t give away $300 phones? This article seems to lead one down this path.

They were wrong, said ESPN executive vice president of content John Skipper during a recent “Breakfast with a Leader” meeting sponsored by the Magazine Publishers Association.

“We want to be a leader in every platform, serving fans wherever they go,” he explained. “When we first started disseminating content on mobile devices, we thought our opportunity to make more money was to own the phone company. We were right hypothetically. If we had gotten people to subscribe to our service, we would have made a lot more money. But we didn’t.”