Omnifone launches MusicStation, a music industry backed next generation music service coming to a mobile phone near you in partnership with 23 mobile network operators

"The launch of MusicStation heralds the next generation mobile music experience for the hundreds of millions of mobile phone subscribers worldwide who want a simple, easy-to-use digital music experience," said Rob Lewis, CEO of Omnifone. "MusicStation will give users of any music-capable handset the ability to legally access, download and enjoy an unlimited amount of music, from a global music catalogue supported by the music industry, all for a small weekly fee, wherever they are."

As well as working in collaboration with the world's major music labels, Omnifone has already signed partnerships with 23 mobile network operators, who have subscribers in 40 countries and a total customer base of 690 million subscribers.

Rob Wells, Senior Vice President, Digital, for Universal Music Group International said "Universal Music Group International are looking forward to the launch of MusicStation, it's one of the most consumer friendly and secure platforms we have seen and the worldwide potential of the MusicStation platform and its ability to make music instantly accessible to consumers via their mobile phone is enormous."

The first operator partners to announce Rollout Agreements for MusicStation will be Scandinavian network operator Telenor and Vodafone partner network Vodacom in South Africa. Four more networks will be launching across major territories in Western Europe and Asia-Pacific in Q2 2007 and these rollouts will be announced in these local markets in the near future.

Anders Jensen, Chief Marketing Officer at Telenor, confirming a Q2 2007 rollout, said, "As one of the first Omnifone partners to launch the MusicStation all you can eat service, Telenor has reinforced its commitment to deliver cutting edge innovative services to its mobile subscribers across Sweden."

Further European operators plan rollouts Q3 2007. Lewis added, "We will ensure the vast majority of Europeans have the freedom to choose MusicStation by the time iPhone arrives in Europe. We will give consumers the choice they deserve".

Omnifone confirms the countries its partners have active mobile phone networks in include: Australia, Belgium, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Greece, Hong Kong, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, New Zealand, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Singapore, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Turkey and UK.

MusicStation provides a complete music experience, enabling users to search for music, download and play music on their mobile, Mac/PC, create, manage and share playlists and tracks with the MusicStation community, and view the latest music news. All of this functionality, including music downloads, takes place in the background whilst music is being played. Unlike Apple's recently-announced iPhone, MusicStation downloads its music over-the-air (OTA) across the MNO's data network, giving users instant access to new music at any time, irrespective of their location. MusicStation also works on both 3G and the majority 2.5G marketplace, providing 2.5G subscribers with OTA full music downloads for the first time.

"By leveraging the hundreds of millions of handsets sold every year by operators to deliver MusicStation into the global market, we believe we can give Apple a run for its money in digital music provision", continued Lewis. "The consumer experience of using MusicStation has much in common with that of an iPod, except that with MusicStation users don't need a credit card, computer or broadband connection and can still download and enjoy the world's music, all the time."

MusicStation includes content from major labels as well as independent music labels and aggregators in local territories. Out-of-the-box MusicStation provides a totally localised music experience. Delivering tracks in Enhanced Advanced Audio Coding format (eAAC+), Omnifone's new service also supports industry-strength DRM.

Omnifone believes MusicStation can significantly enhance digital music revenues for partner MNOs, the music labels and the collection societies.

Guy Fletcher OBE, Writer Director of the PRS and Creative Director of leading independent publisher, Music Copyright Solutions Plc commented, "Music Station will enable inexpensive total access to the world's music by almost anyone with a mobile phone…. it's a great business model for the industry and users alike… truly an important part of the digital revolution".

Omnifone also announces the appointment of Mobiltron Asia Pacific, as its Global Services Partner. Mobiltron's appointment will allow Omnifone partner MNOs to easily source factory-enabled handsets or to rapidly customise existing industry-standard handsets to ensure maximum handset reach to the MusicStation platform. Mobiltron distributes, customises and fulfils handsets across Europe and Asia through facilities in the PRC, Hong Kong and France. John Maclean-Arnott, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Mobiltron comments, "We are delighted to assist Omnifone in ensuring the largest proportion of mobile phone customers possible can have access to the compelling MusicStation experience. We look forward to successful rollouts in Europe and Asia Pacific."

Robin Bloor, Partner at Hurwitz & Associates, Founder of Bloor Research, and also Co-Author "Service Oriented Architecture for Dummies" stated, after reviewing the MusicStation product, "Omnifone has a great opportunity, partly because Apple is doing exclusive deals with carriers and leaving others out in the cold. Apple isn't willing to share its iTunes revenue with the carriers and Apple has only one expensive device that is highly priced.

Naturally Apple will take some share of the market, but even in its wildest dreams it won't get close to 5 percent. Omnifone is providing a music playing capability that many carriers are going to find very useful, maybe even necessary, if they wish to compete with Apple and stay centre stage for content, rather than become purely dependent on price sensitive services such as traditional voice and text."

*Subscribers will pay a small weekly fee to access a comprehensive global catalogue of music drawn from all the major labels and independents. Pricing in the UK is £1.99 per week for unlimited downloads including data with European pricing set at 2.99 Euros per week. A premium service will offer unlimited music downloads to a subscriber's mobile and Mac/PC desktop for £2.99 per week in the UK and 3.99 Euros per week across the rest of Europe. All charges are inclusive of 2.5G or 3G data.

About MusicStation

MusicStation will run on all 2.5G and 3G music compatible mobiles, accounting for approximately 80% of all mobile phone handsets sold in Western Europe today, with both Java and Symbian versions available at launch.

MusicStation's user interface and functionality are virtually identical across all manufacturer handset models, providing the same intuitive user experience on every handset.

Downloaded MusicStation tracks and user playlists are stored centrally so that if a mobile is stolen, lost or upgraded, the replacement handset will automatically restore the same music experience the first time MusicStation is switched on.

MusicStation automatically stores a user's favourite tracks on the phone's internal or removable memory. Whilst some phones can store thousands of tracks, others can store less than one hundred. MusicStation maximises the capabilities of any mobile phone by using unlimited downloads from the network to provide access to any of the catalogue at any time. MusicStation's architecture ensures that the memory allocated on the phone is always used to store the user's favourite and about-to-be-played music. This means that users can access their favourite tracks when in Flight Safe mode and access the full catalogue when connected to a 2.5G or 3G data network.

In-built networked community functions, including the ability to share playlists and tracks with other users over operators' data networks mean that MusicStation provides consumers with a truly compelling community experience on the mobile for the first time. MusicStation users will be able to:

• Discover the MusicStation Play Charts (tracks that are being played the most, rather than purely purchased or downloaded, the most)
• Access playlists created by other MusicStation users;
• Use collaborative filtering and nearest-neighbour technology to identify new tracks, artists, albums and other users that are likely to be of interest;
• Publish playlists for other users to access, and achieve a 'cool' status based on their popularity;
• Message other consumers, sending recommended tracks, albums, playlists and messages;
• Receive music news, gig dates, single and album releases and messages from artists, automatically personalised based on what music the consumer listens to the most frequently.

About Omnifone

Mobile music company Omnifone was founded in 2003 by leading technology entrepreneurs Rob Lewis, Phil Sant and Mark Knight. The founders, along with Chairman Jim Feeney, established Omnifone with the aim of bringing legal and affordable digital music to the mass market over the only digital medium that is ubiquitous globally; mobile handsets. Omnifone's next generation music service MusicStation is a low cost all-you-can-eat subscription-based mobile music service that is pre-installed on participating partner operator handsets and delivers the world's music to most mobile handsets for a small weekly fee. Omnifone uses its unique Device Adaptive Architecture to instantaneously port MusicStation to multiple operator handsets, reducing time to market and giving the highest possible handset reach of any mobile music service globally.

Omnifone has gained global support for MusicStation from the music and mobile industries and has an established network of 23 partner networks, reaching across 40 European, Asia Pacific and African countries. Omnifone's founders sold the successful internet software development company Cromwell Media for £850m in March 2000 and subsequently sold Silicon.com and associated European assets they founded, to major online publishers, including NASDAQ-listed CNET Networks.

Omnifone has offices in London, UK and Hong Kong. For further information, please visit www.omnifone.com.