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Just weeks after Mobile ESPN announced it would broadcast live college football games to its self-branded cell phones, the high-profile Disney-owned Mobile Virtual Network Operator (MVNO) has announced it would cease operations on December 31st. MVNOs are carriers that don't own a physical network, but rather rent and resell the spectrum (as voice and data services) of 'real' wireless operators.

Mobile ESPN serves sports fans over Sprint Nextel’s CDMA voice and data network, which included 3G EV-DO technology for fast data transfers.

Today news confirms rumors that the fledgling MVNO, which launched at the time of the Super Bowl in January, has been struggling to pick up subscribers. Merrill Lynch issued a note in July stating Mobile ESPN would only sign up 30,000 people during its first financial year. Far less than the 240,000 originally estimated, and infinitesimal compared to the 90 million homes ESPN enters everyday.

There are reports that Mobile ESPN has lost $135 million for the Walt Disney company so far.

The MVNO said it would attempt to offer its content services through a major nationwide carrier, and will contact customers to see if they would be interested in still receiving the service through another operator before the end of the year. If not, they will be allowed to terminate service at anytime without penalty; and, when their current bill is paid up, will receive a full refund for their Mobile ESPN cell phone.

"With a redefined approach we have a greater opportunity to reach millions of fans while achieving our strategic and financial goals," said Salil Mehta ESPN Enterprises executive VP in a statement. "ESPN is now able to take advantage of market opportunities that simply did not exist with our content before we built the [network]. We remain committed to serving fans in the wireless arena," Mehta added.

Mobile ESPN is reportedly not the only high profile MVNO that has problems, and its demise isn't going to have positive repercussions on how the investment community views what's still out there. Supposedly Amp'd and Helio, for example, have also struggled to sign up customers.

Helio, the result of a partnership between Earthlink and South Korean mobile operator SK Telecom, targets tech-savvy 18 to 34 year olds through a partnership with the 87-million strong MySpace social-networking site. In the hopes of luring more customers, of the MySpace variety, Helio kicked aside the standard 2-year contract used by nearly all carriers today in August.

This built upon another promotion introduced in June, where Helio implemented an electronics trade-in program. Subscribers can send in an old PDA, cell phone, digital camera, gaming system, or MP3 player to receive not a discount or anything like that, but cash (a check in the mail really).