LONDON-European operator MmO2 countered rival Vodafone Group plc’s Live multimedia service with its own data service called O2 Active. The navigation service, available for prepaid and postpaid users, will launch in June.
MmO2 said the service includes a branded, color icon menu that guides customers to services such as ring tones, multimedia messaging, games, video, information, alerts and pictures.
The operator said 350,000 customers will be able to access O2 Active at launch and added that as more multimedia handsets are sold, that number will increase.
MmO2 said half of its handsets sold in the United Kingdom online in April were color devices, and it continues to see growing use of multimedia messaging and Java services. The company said making data services easier to access through O2 Active will further boost data use.
The service has been tailored for each device and several devices include an O2-branded button that takes customers to the services in one click. Pricing will vary by country and current tariff plans, MmO2 said.
The U.K.-based operator reported increasing revenues from data in its fiscal year 2002 financial report earlier this month despite taking a $9.7 billion charge on its third-generation licenses.
