Music now in store at Telecom

Telecom has caught up to Vodafone in offering mobile phone customers downloadable songs with the launch of its music store yesterday.

The company has made a catalogue of 300,000 songs from labels Universal, EMI and Warner Music available to 027 customers using a Sanyo 9000 phone.

Downloads cost $3.50 each, with the first five free until February 2006.

The company doesn't expect big income from the move yet, but Miki Skiksai, Telecom's head of emerging technologies, said it could develop into a solid revenue stream.

"It would be the kind of thing likely to grow into the millions of dollars. It's similar to ringtones, it's going to take a while to get some traction," he said.

Vodafone beat Telecom to the punch by nearly five months by opening its music store in August, coinciding with the launch of its 3G phones.

A spokeswoman would not disclose revenue or how many songs had been downloaded, but said Vodafone was exceeding its targets.

The company offers 400,000 tracks, also for $3.50 each.

Industry analysts have criticised the costs of downloads as being too high and don't expect much uptake - and consequently much revenue for the phone firms - until the prices come down.