| Aio Wireless LLC | |
| Type: | Subsidiary |
| Fate: | Merged with Cricket Communications |
| Successor: | Cricket Wireless |
| Key People: | Jennifer Van Buskirk (President) Cheryl Choy (Head of Network) |
| Parent: | AT&T Inc. |
Aio Wireless (pronounced "A-O" Wireless) was a prepaid wireless service provider in the United States, wholly owned by AT&T Inc., launched in May 2013.[1]
The name Aio was as an abbreviation of the term "All in One", referring to the provider's fixed price inclusion of unlimited calling, unlimited texting, and specific tiers of data of speeds of up to 4 Mbps with unlimited throttled slow data afterward.[2] [3]
Aio was nominally run in the model of a "small startup business" but with the expectation to become a nationwide player in the sub-sector, as large as MetroPCS.[4] It was designed to staunch the reduction in number of AT&T prepaid customers, as the AT&T GoPhone division lost customers to T-Mobile and Sprint,[5] [6] in part because of AT&T's failure to promote the brand.
Aio initially launched in the southern US cities of Houston, Orlando, and Tampa, and with small variance in the data tiers offered in each city. It eventually grew to 27 markets,[7] with plans to expand its physical presence into areas with a population totaling 220 million Americans by the summer of 2016.[8]
Aio developed a fully separate brand identity, with its "own processes, retail environments, culture and brand" upon launch, "operating at arm’s length from the rest of" AT&T.<ref name="FriedAug2013">Web site: Fried. Ina. August 30, 2013. AT&T Takes Its Aio Wireless Prepaid Service Nationwide. AllThingsD. [9]
The brand was designed to compete with the other brands and providers, likewise sold through independent dealer stores in major urban areas, that offered "value-conscious consumers" unlimited calling, texting, and throttled data, such as Sprint's Boost Mobile and Virgin Mobile, T-Mobile's newly-acquired MetroPCS and its newly-developed secondary prepaid brand GoSmart Mobile, and America Movil's Tracfone Wireless lineup of brands.[10]
AT&T decided to create Aio as a separate brand for those different, "value-conscious" customers targeted by Aio's offerings.[11] [12] [13] Aio, and its successor Cricket, allowed AT&T to make use of the AT&T cellular network to aim for price-conscious consumers and experiment with offerings that might be later made available to AT&T postpaid customers, by competing through lower priced plans against other large providers, while still offering the comfort, desired by some consumers, of backing by AT&T, and while keeping the main AT&T brand separate and positioned as a premium service with premium prices.[14] [15] [16] [17] [18]
Aio was perceived by some commentators as actually designed to respond directly to T-Mobile and its new policy of no longer requiring, or offering, service contracts on its postpaid plans,[19]