Indicom to launch Net radio phones at Rs 3,000

You no longer need a computer with Internet or a World Space radio set to listen to music from around the globe. A Tata Indicom CDMA handset can connect you to radio stations in New Jersey, Mexico, Tennessee or New Orleans. Just flip open the cell phone, click on the ‘Radio’ link and get scrolling to choose your station.

A month ago, the company had launched the Internet Radio service on three handsets — Motorazr V3C, Samsung Wideo and Motorola World Phone, each handset priced upwards of Rs 8,000. Now, the company is planning to introduce this service on handsets costing as low as Rs 3,000.

Currently, 41 foreign radio stations including Bloomberg Business Radio, CNN News radio, Fox News and Talk, and ESPN Radio can be tuned into. There are also-genre specific stations such as WMPS Bartelett, Tenesee (rock music), WWOZ, New Orleans (Jazz music), WJKS, New Jersey (Hip-Hop music), Stereo Joya, Mexico and US-based Telugu radio station ‘Radio of India’. More channels are likely to be added.

At present, subscribers are charged a fee of Rs 25 for 15 days to access the service across all Tata Indicom circles. This service will also be available to Tata Indicom subscribers who are out of FM radio limits in the city. Even those Tata Indicom circles that do not have an FM radio service would be able to access this Internet radio option, said Mr Pankaj Sethi, President-Value Added Services, Tata Teleservices Ltd.

He did not share figures of how many such Internet Radio enabled handsets had been sold so far. According to data from various reports, about 70 million mobile handsets were sold in India in 2006.

Nokia and Sony Ericsson have together sold over 50 million music- enabled handsets since such handsets were introduced, reports say.

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