VISUAL EFFECT: (from left): Naveen Chopra, Chief Marketing Officer, Hutch, Dilip Phadke, Director of Business Development Strategic Initiatives, HP, A. P. Parigi, Managing Director, Radio Mirchi, Vineet Taneja, Director-National Operator Accounts, Nokia India, and Kapil Jain, Vice-President, Services, HP India, at the launch of `Visual Radio' services in New Delhi on Tuesday. — Photo: S. Subramanium

NEW DELHI: Mobile radio listeners have a new channel for entertainment through visual radio with four companies — Hutch, Radio Mirchi, Nokia and HP — on Tuesday announcing the rolling out of this service.

Visual Radio allows listeners to tune in to local FM radio via the receiver on their Nokia devices while simultaneously receiving interactive information and graphics that are synchronised with radio broadcast through the cellular network onto the screen of the handset.

Listeners can enjoy engaging and content, participate in radio station promotions, poll and contests and interact with Radio Jockeys and special guests. Radio Mirchi becomes the first FM radio station in India to offer this interactive content.

Visual Radio handsets were already available in India with applications but Hutch was the first mobile service provider to offer this, Hutch marketing head Naveen Chopra told newspersons here.

He, however, declined to comment on the revenue sharing of the collaboration.

Nokia's visual radio handsets are available within the price range of Rs. 6,000 to Rs. 25,000. As for service charges, Mr. Chopra said there would be no rental for GPRS connections in the case of post-paid connections. Only usage charges, including the downloading charges, would apply. The normal charges for downloading were ten paise per 10 KB of data.

A GPRS-enabled handset is a must for visual radio.

At present, visual radio is available on Nokia N series mobile phones. and select Nokia phones. Initially, Visual Radio would be available to Hutch customers in Delhi, followed by other metros.

PTI

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