Carphone Warehouse To Offer Mobile Music Subscription

Carphone Warehouse is apparently in talks with Omniphone (which launched in Sweden last week) for an exclusive deal to offer its Music Station service on the handsets it sells. “According to music industry sources, the deal that Carphone is considering would mean that around three-quarters of the phones it sells in the key preChristmas trading period would come with Music Station software preloaded,” reports Times Online. The service offers unlimited downloads for 1.99 pounds (US$3.91) per week and the songs stop working if the subscription lapses. In many places a retailer trying to sell a subscription service would crash and burn, but many UK telcos have flat-rate data packages, so it is viable. Neither company would confirm the report.

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KTF To Trial Pay-Buy System Before World Launch

This October KTF will trial the mobile payment system Pay-Buy Mobile in Seoul along with all the players in the value chain (banks, credit card companies, retail organizations, handset makers, etc) to check the viability of the system. If its successful the system will be expanded to 24 operators worldwide, including Cingular, China Mobile and NTT DoCoMo, reports The Korea Times. The big difference between Pay-Buy and many current mobile payment systems is that Pay-Buy will work in foreign countries and thus act more like an international credit card. The initiative is spear-headed by the GSM Association. While it’s true that the vast majority of mobile use is within a single country, probably even a single city, there’s a lot to be said for a standard system. If there isn’t much domestic difference between different mobile payment systems the one with roaming capabilities will be at an advantage—and the technology has already drawn the attention of some of the largest carriers in the world

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Voda’s Buyout Of Hutch A Dealbreaker For DoCoMo

Due to the changes in business environment, both companies concluded that it would be difficult to launch i-mode service at this time and agreed not to proceed”, says NTT DoCoMo, Japan’s largest mobile phone company, in a statement. [via ET] So, Voda’s acquisition of Hutch has been a deal-breaker for DoCoMo. Question is - is DoCoMo looking for another partner, or have they decided to focus on other markets for now? Vodafone’s buyout of Hutch had recently received an approval from India’s Foreign Investment Promotion Board.

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Vodafone Egypt Plans 3G Video Service

Vodafone Egypt will launch a range of rich media services for its 3G customers in Spring, including a mobile TV service. Kamera will provide some TV channels tailored to the local Arabic market, including an Arabic-speaking news channel ShortCut, the sport channel SportCall and the entertainment channel WOW! TV, plus highlights from the upcoming Qualifications to the EURO2008 football championship. Kamera will also distribute third-party channels, including encoding video live and near live and editing the third party content. (release)

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