World Cup goes mobile - anyone watching?

Friday March 10th 2006, 5:50 pm
Filed under: Newspapers

T-Mobile, the mobile wing of the German telecoms company Deutsche Telekom, is planning to broadcast 20 matches of this summer’s World Cup. Mobile phone customers will pay EUR 2 a day, or EUR 7.50 per month for the package, which will also include programming from MTV. British mobile provider O2 is planning a similar venture to coincide with the World Cup, but with a smaller group of users. Coming on the heels of successes with Asian mobile phone users, European companies are wondering if a World Cup year will bring the breakthrough they have been waiting for. Ever since the establishment of UMTS networks across Germany enabled users to do everything from downloading video clips to checking e-mail, telecoms companies have been trying in vain to get customers to purchase the extra services. Among the 80m mobile phone users in Germany, only 2.3m have phones capable of exploiting the various UMTS features - though 9m are expected this year. Analysts are sceptical about the number of people who will actually take advantage of the World Cup offers by T-Mobile and O2. Though 100,000 customers tuned in to watch a live broadcast of a Robbie Williams concert last fall, interest in football, which does not play well on a small screen, could be limited. (Deutsche Welle,March 10, 2006)

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