Vodafone launches major 3G campaign for the Christmas season

Vodafone launches major 3G campaign for the Christmas season With Christmas just around the corner, Vodafone is increasing its focus on 3G in the consumer market with a wealth of new Vodafone live! products and services to give customers a whole new experience of mobile communications: · Six new 3G handsets in the Swedish market - three of which are available in shops today. · Sweden's first mobile music store, with full track music downloads directly to your mobile phone with Vodafone live! 3G · Free video call minutes on Vodafone Sweden's 3G network for customers who subscribe before 31January 2005 (call set-up fee will be charged). · A new, refreshed Vodafone live! portal which makes it even easier to access services · Free browsing on Vodafone live! · Free trial of five content packages - covering sports, news, music and entertainment/lifestyle. · 3D games added to Vodafone live's range of Java games When Vodafone live! was first launched in 2002 it introduced a completely new way of communicating, offering camera phones, pictures, colour and content to Vodafone customers. Vodafone live! has been a great success and today there are millions of customers worldwide. Vodafone Sweden opened its 3G network for consumers this summer, but is now increasing the focus on Vodafone live! with 3G. "Our offering consist of a wide range of entertainment and communication services and a whole new generation of 3G mobiles. That is why we will be focusing strongly on Vodafone live! with 3G this Christmas season, both in terms of special offers and marketing drives. We are convinced that our handsets will be very popular as Christmas gifts and that our new services and packages will form the basis for a strong upswing in video telephony and other multimedia services with Swedish mobile users," says Hans Kuropatwa, CEO of Vodafone Sweden. Vodafone live! with 3G offers a mobile world of entertainment, media and communication services where customers can, in addition to using traditional voice services and SMS; make video calls; send pictures, video MMS and real postcards; get video clips of news and sports - for example the latest goals in Premier League - and entertainment in video format. They can also play 3-D java games; download ringtones and now also full track music downloads from a catalogue of thousands of tracks from the world's top artists. Vodafone Sweden's customers can also enjoy the benefits of Vodafone live! with 3G when they travel abroad and make video calls to people back home, for instance. Vodafone Sweden provides 3G roaming in the following countries: France, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, the UK and Germany. Vodafone introduces a large number of products and services in Vodafone live! with 3G: Six new-generation 3G handsets Vodafone is launching six new 3G handsets in Sweden. The handsets have been designed in close collaboration with Vodafone's manufacturing partners to ensure easy to use service delivery with the familiar, and now improved, Vodafone live! user interface. The new handsets are: Motorola V980 (exclusive at launch for Vodafone), Samsung Z107, Sony Ericsson V800 (exclusive at launch for Vodafone), Motorola E1000, Nokia 6630 and Sharp 902 (exclusive for Vodafone). The first three are in stock at the time of writing, while the Nokia 6630 will be delivered within a few days. The other handsets will be reaching the market in the next few weeks for the run-up to Christmas. Prices are listed below. Sweden's first mobile music store in Vodafone live! with 3G Vodafone is providing a new, unique mobile service in association with several of the world's largest record labels including Sony BMG, EMI and Warner Music. The new service offers full track music download from Vodafone live! with 3G directly to the 3G handset. The Vodafone live! music catalogue contains thousands full track music downloads from numerous top Swedish and international artists and more content will be added on a continuous basis. Vodafone's customers can also choose from a wide range of ringtones and music videos. For information, please refer to the separate press release or visit www.vodafone.se. Free video call minutes on Vodafone Sweden's 3G network Customers who buy one of the new 3G handsets with one of Vodafone's consumer subscriptions before 31 January 2005 can make free video calls minutes inside Vodafone's 3G network to other Vodafone customers until 31 January 2006. The only surcharge is a call setup fee for each video call. New Vodafone live portal The Vodafone live! portal for content services has received a new, user-friendly and visually improved interface, enhancing Vodafone's customers experience and forming the gateway to Vodafone live's content services. The browsing on the Vodafone live! portal is free of charge. New mobile content package - sports, news, music and entertainment/lifestyle Vodafone is also presenting new mobile content packages where customers can subscribe to Vodafone live's 3G content services on a monthly basis. For SEK 45/package per month, customers can choose from: Music package - five full track music downloads of your choice every month from Vodafone's catalogue of thousands of full track music downloads. Sports packages - two sports packages are available - Premier League or Elitserien in ice hockey. Subscribe and see video footage of your favourite team's goals directly in your 3G handset. As from next season you will also be able to enjoy football action from Allvenskan. Entertainment and lifestyle package - find the right restaurant, get the latest fashion tips, new cinema releases and much more - all in video format, pictures and text. News package - get the latest news updates from AP and TT in video format - five to eight clips per day. Until 31 January 2005 Vodafone is offering its customers free trial of each package (value of SEK 225). 3D games in Vodafone live! with 3G Vodafone, which offers the market's most extensive catalogue of java games, is now also introducing 3D games to enhance the mobile game experience even further. The range includes Ferrari Experience 3D and Extreme Air Snowboarding. Price examples of Vodafone's new 3G handsets together with Vodafone's Start subscription (monthly fee, SEK 49): Motorola V980 SEK 99 per month for mobile + 24-month subscription (SEK 2,295 without subscription) Samsung Z107 SEK 199 per month for mobile + 24-month subscription (SEK 4,775 without subscription) Motorola E1000 SEK 199 per month for mobile + 24-month subscription (SEK 4,795 without subscription) Sony Ericsson V800 SEK 195 on purchase and SEK 199 per month for mobile + 24-month subscription (SEK 4,995 without subscription) Nokia 6630 SEK 199 per month for mobile + 24-month subscription (SEK 4,795 without subscription). Sharp 902 SEK 895 on purchase, SEK 249 per month for mobile + 24-month subscription (SEK 6,795 without subscription) For more information, please contact: Paul Moonga, Director of Consumer Market, Vodafone Sweden Tel: +46 734 25 26 28, e-mail paul.moonga@vodafone.com Anders Jensen, Head of Content Services, Vodafone Sweden Tel: +46 708 33 13 17, e-mail anders.jensen@vodafone.com Geraldine Wilson, Chief Commercial Officer, Vodafone Sweden Tel: +46 734 25 26 27, e-mail geraldine.wilson@vodafone.com ------------------------------------------------------------ This information was brought to you by Waymaker http://www.waymaker.net The following files are available for download: http://www.waymaker.net/bitonline/2004/11/10/20041110BIT20370/wkr0001.pdf