More Than a Million Cellular One Customers Have Access to Napster Mobile Hosted by Ericsson

Wireless Provider puts Nation’s Largest Mobile Music Catalog at Subscribers’ Fingertips

Cellular One customers across the US have access to the world’s largest mobile music catalog thanks to a joint partnership between the wireless provider, Ericsson (NASDAQ:ERIC) and Napster (NASDAQ: NAPS) announced today. Napster Mobile is available to customers of Cellular One from Dobson Cellular Systems, one of the largest providers of wireless services in rural America.

The service features Napster’s massive catalog of over 3 million full-length songs enabling Cellular One’s more than 1.6 million customers to easily enjoy music on their wireless handset and on their PC.

Tom Roberts, Chief Marketing Officer for Cellular One, says: “This agreement gives Cellular One customers an outstanding catalog of music available directly from their wireless handset. This is another example of how consumers are increasingly using their wireless handsets in non-traditional ways and we are making cutting-edge technology and services available to our customer base”.

Cellular One subscribers in 17 US states have access to Napster Mobile, allowing them to search and browse the content in Napster’s catalog and buy and receive full-length songs via their wireless handset. Since Napster Mobile is a dual-platform, digital music service fully integrated with Napster’s PC offering, a copy of the purchased content is simultaneously sent to the customer’s PC.

Brad Duea, President of Napster, says: “By partnering with Ericsson and utilizing its unique hosting platforms, we have an effective channel in place that providers can use to include Napster’s strong brand and music services in their mobile media content offerings. We are excited to work with Cellular One, a leader in the dynamic environment of mobile content, and now among a growing number of providers offering Napster Mobile to subscribers.”

Napster Mobile is based on a service delivery platform tailored for media delivery. Ericsson will host, integrate and manage the round-the-clock-operations of the service for Cellular One from Dobson under a managed service agreement. The agreement also includes content aggregation and digital rights management and is based on a risk- and revenue-share model.

Angel Ruiz, President of Ericsson North America, says: “Our hosted solutions are strategically designed to enable innovative and leading providers like Cellular One to quickly and cost-effectively deliver valuable services to their customers. Ericsson helps providers retain customers longer and gain new customers in greater numbers by enhancing the wireless experience for subscribers, without losing focus on operational efficiency.”