EarthLink's Helio Wireless Goes Live

Helio, the joint venture between Korea's SK Telecom and EarthLink targeted towards young consumers, officially launched on Tuesday. The company is leasing bandwidth from CDMA provider Sprint Nextel, however it has added features on top of what Sprint's towers can already provide.

The MVNO, or Mobile Virtual Network Operator, is focusing on Internet features. Helio's phones provide easy access to content such as games, music and video. Additionally, functionality from Yahoo and MySpace.com are built into the phones.

The service also includes a feature called HOT, or Helio on Top. This would allow subscribers to program content to appear automatically on their idle screens without any interaction from the user.

Additionally, users would be able to both gift content, and "beg" for other subscribers to purchase premium content for them.

"With Helio, mobile is about staying connected in innovative ways where sharing your world includes content like videos and games, or unique personalization that you know your friends will love," Helio CEO Sky Dayton said. "These are things that have been happening on the Internet for years, but haven't been taken mobile - until now."

The company says it will not "nickel and dime" its customers, and has created something called "All-In Plans." These plans include MySpace on Helio, the Helio On Top service, 3G network access including wireless internet and data transfer, video messaging, and nationwide calling.

Helio plans run $85 USD per month for 1,000 minutes, $100 USD per month for 1,500 minutes and $135 USD for 2,000 minutes.

The phones are currently available from the Helio Web site, and will be sold through 1,000 retail locations by the end of the month, expanding to 3,000 by the end of the year.