Wholesale GPRS arrives in the UK

News

Stuart O'Brien Mar 27 2006, 11:00am

The first off-portal full track music service where consumers pay ‘one price’ to download songs with no additional data charges has launched in the UK.

The service, managed by New-Visions and powered by wholesale GPRS data from mBlox, is offering tracks from artists on the Ministry of Sound and V2 labels.

Previously, prohibitive operator data charges - one track can cost up to £20 to download - have put a brake on off-portal music services. The arrival of wholesale GPRS tariffs, however, is expected to be a major catalyst for growth.

Mobile transaction network mBlox inked a deal with Vodafone to offer the wholesale data model to New-Visions. Vodafone customers downloading tracks from the MoS or V2’s WAP sites will not incur any data charges on their mobile phone bill beyond the list price of the song.

Orange is expected to be the next operator to offer the wholesale GPRS model, with the remaining UK networks falling into line during the summer.

The UK off-portal full track download sector is gathering pace, with Monstermob launching a service later this week and Jamster set unveil its own offer next month.