Vodafone launched 3G services in 13 countries: Austria, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the UK.
Vodafone is featuring a range of downloadable and streaming content, including:
- an extensive music catalogue from world's greatest artists
- a new "made-for-mobile" video drama inspired by the blockbuster TV series "24"
- exclusive videos, pictures, animated greetings and wallpaper
- aunch of "Movie of the Month" starting with "Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason"
- UEFA Champions League and Barclays Premiership video clips
- exclusive Manchester United and Ferrari mobile video content
- new games from leading publishers
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The 3G service supports video calling, enabling Vodafone customers to see and hear one another when making a call. The launch includes 10 new 3G handsets, including Europe's first 2 mega pixel camera phone (Sharp 902). Handsets feature stereo speakers and have 32MB of base memory.
Vodafone vowed to pursue "an easy to understand pricing model" designed to encourage usage through increased cost transparency. Content purchases will be charged on an event basis and browsing will be free or included in a bundle of services. Customers will also be offered promotional bundles to promote the uptake of new Vodafone services. 3G voice propositions will offer more value for money to customers, with each Vodafone operating company offering market specific pricing plans.
Vodafone expects that the 3G service will become increasingly mass market next year. The company expects over 10 million customers to be using Vodafone live! with 3G by March 2006. http://www.vodafone.com
- At 30 June 2004, based on the registered customers of mobile telecommunications ventures in which Vodafone had ownership interests at that date, the Vodafone Group had approximately 139.2 million customers, excluding paging customers, calculated on a proportionate basis in accordance with the company's percentage interest in these ventures.
