Ericsson and Napster in mobile deal in Portugal

Ericsson and Napster announced an agreement with Portuguese operator TMN for the music service Napster Mobile.

Napster Mobile gives TMN Portugal’s subscribers access to more than 2 million full-length tracks from the Napster catalogue in the palms of their hands. They will also have access to Ericsson-aggregated personalization content.

Zeinal Bava, President of TMN Portugal, says: “Napster Mobile – with the well-known Napster brand – is an attractive offering that we are pleased to include in our portfolio. Ericsson offered us an easy, cost-efficient and quick way to launch the service through its hosted offering, which we think is a good business model for us.”

Napster Mobile allows TMN’s subscribers to search, browse, preview and purchase the content of their choice via their WAP or Java-enabled phones. Other features include a recommendation engine, which suggests content based upon each individual’s taste, and dual delivery, which makes sure that – when content is purchased on the phone – a copy is sent to the customer’s PC.

Hans-Erhard Reiter, President, Ericsson Portugal, says: “Napster Mobile was co-developed by Ericsson and Napster, leveraging Napster’s immense catalogue of more than 2 million full-length tracks and Ericsson’s mobile music platform and personalization content. It’s a great offer for operators and we’re glad to have TMN on board.”

Hosting means Ericsson will integrate and manage the round-the-clock operations of the service for TMN under a managed service agreement. The hosting business model allows operators to launch attractive new services easily and cost-efficiently, with short time-to-market.