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Cingular to Offer Radio Service

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on from the try-try-again dept.

Mika24 writes "Red Herring is reporting that Cingular Wireless will launch a new over-the-air-radio service in conjunction with the TV service they will offer with MobiTV." The music programming will be done by Music Choice and will include rock, urban, country, reggae, jazz, electronica, and classical. From the article: "MobiRadio uses the improving screen capabilities on cell phones to offer album art and information about songs and artists during playback. Cingular said it will expand that capability to let subscribers purchase related ringtones and other content while the music is playing--a set of features made popular by satellite radio providers."

7 of 76 comments (clear)

  1. I don't get it by ThatGeek · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I don't get it. At all.

    What's the point of this service? All those guys and gals with ipods won't care; they already have a better tool for playing the music that they like. Few others will have earbuds for their phones, so they'll either have to put the music on speaker phone (often not available on cells) and annoy everyone around them, or hold their phones up to their ear for hours at a time while they listen to the music.

    I can't wait until people start using up their airtime minutes listening to messages like "this music brought to you by [advertiser's name here]".

    Rather than trying to bundle music with phones, why can't they bundle wireless more cheaply? Even just improving connectivity with email would be pretty huge in my mind.

    --
    What are you eating? isItVeg?.
    1. Re:I don't get it by squiggleslash · · Score: 2, Insightful
      I would assume the point is to provide quality radio stations that would otherwise be unavailable to consumers without XM/Sirius receivers. Remember - FM radio in America sucks. It's not difficult to better it. If the price is low enough, people will sign up.

      The real question is not "What's the point?" but "Is this a viable package?", and everything I've read on this deal has essentially had so much missing it's impossible to say. IF Cingular doesn't plan to charge people 3c/kilobyte or at their absurd mMode/MediaNET rates (which pretty much precludes listening to a 64kbps stream - supposedly MP3Pro is "FM quality" at that rate - for more than a few minutes), and IF cellphones are provided with easy stereo-out (which might just mean an adapter for the headset socket), then it's almost a reasonable idea. People currently considering XM/Sirius may be tempted, as theoretically the form factor is more practical.

      Until Cingular does more than waffle about it in press-releases, it's hard to tell what they're actually selling.

      --
      You are not alone. This is not normal. None of this is normal.
  2. Who really wants this? by TheoGB · · Score: 4, Insightful

    My mobile battery is fine now and can deal with day to day stuff but I can't really see it coping much with TV in my hand.

    And on top of that, I'm at a loss to think how often I'd really want to squint at a screen that size. While it's true that I normally have my mobile with me, something like the PSP or similar isn't much larger and seems far more practical.

    That's before I even think about what the cost must be to receive these broadcasts.

  3. Lame. by Seumas · · Score: 4, Insightful

    This might have been interesting 20 years ago. I don't want to watch crappy choppy videos on my cellphone screen. *Maybe* on my Treo 650, but probably not there either. And I certainly don't want pre-programmed "music choice" crap from some lame network running over Cingular.

    Hell, I don't really even need my Treo. It was just a good deal, so I went for it even though I don't use 95% of the features.

    Let's quit with the iPod+Cell thing already, eh?

  4. Re:Offering radio services, meanwhile... by DilbertLand · · Score: 2, Insightful

    I've heard people claim that Apple doesn't add the FM tuners to the iPod because, in general, the receivers aren't great quality and they don't want the complaints about less than ideal radio reception. It's the only explaination I can see as to why they won't add a 15cent chip to a $400 player....

  5. Re:Like Satellite Radio by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Personally, the reason I don't use Satellite Radio is I'm already being nickel and dimed to death with monthly ISP bills, cable bills, phone bills, etc... I just draw the line at paying a monthly fee for radio when I can turn on my car radio and receive local stations for free. Although my favorite local station just changed their format and I find there's less quality locally now, it's still not enough to make me want to add yet another monthly luxury fee to my budget when there's a free alternative available. This is also why I still play MUDs and not WoW or whatever other subscription based graphical games are in favor currently.

  6. Re:How about a helium balloon and 40 feet of wire? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

    If your in a metro area where the air is loaded with hot signals from towers only a mile or 3 away then you're in luck. If you're in the boonies where the nearest AM tower is 40 miles away then you're not so lucky. That little dinky antenna might not be too efficient. And don't forget there are more variables to contend with in a reciever. Selectivity, sensitivity, adjacent channel rejection, all kinds of interesting things.