ESPN to start mobile service with Sanyo phone

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SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Sports television network ESPN plans to start selling a wireless service for sports fans on a limited basis this year with a mobile phone from Sanyo Electric Co Ltd (6764.T), it said on Tuesday.

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Disney's (NYSEIS - news) ESPN sees the mobile service, which will operate on a high-speed wireless network that Sprint Nextel Corp. (NYSE:S - news) is building, as a way to expand its brand and its sports programming beyond traditional television screens.

Sprint Nextel leases network space to several wireless providers including Virgin Mobile USA, its joint venture with Virgin (VA.UL),in an effort to gain revenue from consumers it has not signed up for Sprint branded services.

Sprint Nextel, which plans to have a high-speed network that covers about half of the U.S. population early next year, will also support a separate Disney branded mobile service.

ESPN said customers could sign up for its Mobile ESPN service and buy the Sanyo MVP phone on its Web site in time for the winter holiday season. It plans to follow with a full national retail launch in February.

Along with traditional phone call services it plans to deliver sports score alerts, breaking news and commentary as well as some audio and video clip services to mobile phones. It did not reveal pricing for the service or the phone.

The Sanyo MVP has a 1.3 megapixel camera, a video and voice recorder, and an MP3 digital music player, ESPN said.

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Mobile ESPN to launch at Superbowl
ESPN today revealed the first details of its much-anticipated MVNO, announcing that it would be a 3G service running over Sprint’s new EV-DO network and is scheduled to launch on the biggest sports day of the year, Superbowl Sunday.

ESPN also renamed the service from ESPN Mobile to Mobile ESPN. The Disney division said it would begin offering the service on a limited basis on its website www.mobileespn.com during the Holidays, but it’s nationwide rollout will commence Sunday Feb. 5, the day of the Superbowl. At that time Sprint is expected to have completed the first phase of its 3G rollout, covering 143 million people in the U.S. with its EV-DO footprint.

ESPN also unveiled its first phone for the network, the Sanyo MVP, an EV-DO handset the vendor has designed exclusively for the MVNO. In addition to high-end smartphone features like a 1.3 Megapixel camera and MP3 player, the handset is being optimized for multimedia content with a QVGA display and special user face elements designed to display real-time sports scores and other statistics as well as special engine called Gamecast, which creates a graphical representation of sporting events.

The company also announced it is contracting with West Corporation to handle the new virtual operator’s customer service.

http://telephonyonline.com/wireless/news/ESPN_mobile_Content_092805/