MUMBAI: Ericsson and Napster have announced the launch of the Napster Mobile music service with Telecom Italia through its mobile brand TIM, the leading mobile carrier serving the Italian market with over 35 million subscribers.

Co-developed by Ericsson and Napster for the Italian market, Napster Mobile is a premium music service offering an array of features and personalized content, including ringtones, artist images, wallpaper and access to Napster Mobile’s catalog of more than 5 million songs.

Napster Mobile also offers dual-delivery for simultaneous downloads to a subscriber’s PC and mobile phone, a unique feature that provides users the convenience of downloading songs directly to their phones with a high-fidelity copy of the song available to download on their PCs.

Under the agreement, Ericsson’s responsibilities include systems integration, operation, maintenance and content management of Napster Mobile for TIM. The service is available now.

“Entering the Italian market is an exciting milestone,” said Napster president Brad Duea. “By partnering with Ericsson and TIM we can offer a superior music experience and make our extensive catalog available to Italian consumers for the first time.”

“We are proud to be the first in Italy to offer the world-class music service Napster Mobile,” said Telecom Italia head of mobile VAS Riccardo Jelmini. “Ericsson’s solution allows us a quick, cost-efficient and simple way to launch this service, which gives our customers easy access to first-rate, feature-rich music services and will also expand our subscriber base.”

“The marriage of Napster’s innovative music service and Ericsson’s technological leadership and operational expertise helps operators bring attractive new services to market easily and cost-effectively,” said Ericsson Italy president Cesare Avenia.