Cingular unveils mobile radio service
Posted on: Tuesday, 15 November 2005, 19:17 CST
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Cingular Wireless on Monday introduced a radio service for its mobile phone customers, using about 40 channels of commercial-free music from Music Choice and MobiTV Inc.'s streaming media service.
The service, which runs over data connections to Cingular's phones, is its latest effort to expand beyond voice phone calls. It also plans a song download service as music is expected to become the next popular feature for cell phones.
Privately held MobiTV also delivers video clips to Cingular and Sprint mobile phones. Music Choice, which is providing the music channels to Cingular, is a partnership of several technology and media firms.
Cingular, the wireless venture of SBC Communications Inc. and BellSouth Corp., is charging $6.99 a month for the MobiRadio service, plus airtime charges.
Sprint Nextel Corp., the No. 3 U.S. wireless service, began selling a similar service in mid-September using channels from Sirius Satellite Radio Inc. It also charges about $7 a month plus airtime unless customers also pay a $10 or more monthly fee for unlimited data use.
Cingular, the biggest U.S. wireless firm, said MobiRadio will work on three phones that it sells, including one from Nokia and two from Sony Ericsson, owned by Ericsson and Sony.
It plans to expand the service in coming months to allow customers to instantly purchase ringtones and other content related to the song that's playing.
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