CANNES, France-CNN Interactive last week announced at the GSM World Congress its CNN
Mobile service, a mobile telephone news and information service using a platform it co-developed with Nokia Oy. The
service will allow consumers to get text-based CNN news on their handsets, and audio service along with it later this
year.
CNN called CNN Mobile the first global value-added service to be built on the Wireless Application Protocol
and already has begun advertising the service on its cable news network.
Content for the service will be optimized
specifically for short message service delivery and will support Nokia’s Smart Messaging concept. Available news will
be region-specific for the carrier offering the service. Because CNN Mobile is WAP-compliant, CNN also eventually
will be able to develop multimedia content.
Nokia, at the same press conference, introduced its new WAP-based
GSM 900/1800 7110 multimedia handset, which the company said would be available in July for volume
shipments.
Initially targeted at Global System for Mobile communications providers in Europe and the Asia-Pacific,
CNN Mobile has nine charter carriers in those regions that have signed on to offer the service. Sonera of Finland is
scheduled to be the first to launch the service. M1, Singapore; EuroTel Praha, Czech Republic; Hong Kong Telecom,
New World Mobility and Smartone of Hong Kong; Orange, Israel; Sonofone, Denmark; and Telia of Sweden are
scheduled to launch the service later this year.
“CNN Mobile will benefit from CNN International’s
commitment to producing the most relevant, comprehensive and timely pan-regional news, available anywhere in the
world,” said Nan Richards, president, News Networks, for Turner Broadcasting System Europe Ltd. “This
month CNN International announced a significant increase in the amount of regionalized programming from London
and Hong Kong. We will significantly enhance our European and Asian news coverage and will add more than 70
additional staff.”
What’s important in deploying new technology is the content offered and branding that
content to differentiate it, said Mark Bernstein, general manager of CNN Interactive in announcing the new
service.
“Content sells technology,” Bernstein said and pointed to the cable TV industry, where people
really started buying the service when content such as HBO and CNN became available.
“[CNN Mobile]
associates the operator with CNN … allows them to attract new subscribers, reduce churn and differentiate themselves
from other providers.”
Bernstein added that carriers will have to evaluate their own markets to determine how
to charge for this type of service. Some likely will charge on a per-message basis, while others may give it away as a
value-added incentive.
“CNN Mobile … is the type of service that Nokia believes is in great demand among
trend-setting mobile phone users,” said Anssi Vonjoki, senior vice president, Nokia Mobile Phones, Europe and
Africa. “Both CNN and Nokia have been pioneers and leading innovators in their owns fields of business. Now
these two companies have joined forces in bringing together the latest mobile communications expertise and news
content. I am confident that value-added services, such as CNN Mobile, are the winning formula for the mobile
industry.”
In a similar announcement at the show, Reuters and Unwired Plant Inc. announced Reuters has
developed a wireless version of its information service to give users of WAP-compliant phones access the news
provider’s information services, including news, stock quotes and indices.
The companies offered a demonstration
of the service, but did not announce any contracts.
