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Virgin Radio Launches 3G Radio Service
An anonymous reader writes "Virgin Radio, one of UK's top radio stations, has launched the first 3G radio service for free (as in beer). This is great news for those with a Symbian equipped phone and an unlimited data plan. Various articles suggest that mobile radio could be a major threat to satellite radio. Russell Beattie and friends have had an initial look and commented on the program."
As stated in the Wall Street Journal, Virgin actually attempted to acquire Sirus radio early in 2004, however they could not settle on an amount and the deal fell through. This must be Virgins plan to twart satellite radio, and maintain their hold on the communications market. XM and Sirus should merge to stay competitive in the market and drop their prices. Only time will tell where they go with this one.
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I'm glad the station was launched "for free (as in beer)", as opposed to, erm, "for free (as in speech)".
Forbes recently had an article about how Verizon was planning a similar service. I find this really interesting because I heard a couple of reports on C-NBC today talking about how Verizon has been in private talks with Virgin about a technology license. The pundits seem to believe that verizon is trying to get a license from Virgin to carry their content on the verizon network.
I think that this would actually be a really smart strategy for Virgin to employ. Think about it, Virgin not only gets the advertising for it first and everyone begins to associate it with them but then once it becomes famous they get a piece of everyone elses action.
The world is moving towards total technolgy convergence where people will have a radio/mp3 player/phone (they already do actually). This will become another feature that every phone will have to have in a couple of years and Virgin will not hold a monopoly for very long. By letting people buy into their content they make sure that they get money from everyone.
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Unfortunately, at least in the UK, unlimited (3G) data plans seem rather hard to come by with the majority of services having sub 100MB caps or a pay-per-megabyte price structure.
Slightly off-topic but related, Virgin is unusual as a 'major station' in the UK in that it offers its streams in Ogg/Vorbis format. (The BBC did previously but has stopped for an undetermined ammount of time).
Ripping an new rectum in the fabric of spacetime.
Symbian phones aren't exactly inexpensive. Unlimited data plans (at least in the U.S.) cost an arm and a leg. I wouldn't call this free.
Broadcasting to all 14 Symbian Smartphone owners with unlimited data plans currently in 3G coverage areas...