A music download service to counter the iPhone
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A new music service that allows a user to download an unlimited number of songs on a cell phone wherever he is, and for a small weekly fee, was launched in Europe on Thursday.
The UK company Omnifone said it had signed deals with Universal Music, Sony BMG, Warner Music and EMI, and partnered with thirty mobile operators as part of this initiative to counter the launch of the iPhone Apple.
The service called MusicStation will be available on 75% of handsets already on the market and will be launched first in Sweden on Thursday with Scandinavian operator Telenor's. It will then be marketed in the rest of Europe, the Asia-Pacific and Africa in the coming weeks. Omnifone, which can offer a million songs, MusicStation hopes to impose on 100 million mobile phones in one year.
The company said the service will be available on all 2.5G and 3G handsets, which now represent some 80% of appliances sold in Western Europe.
The weekly fee for unlimited downloads will amount to 2.99 euros. 
Downloading a song request from one to 15 seconds and it will be possible to store 100 to several thousand depending on the handset, told Reuters Rob Lewis, CEO of Omnifone.
"We believe that MusicStation, which offers consumers unlimited access to music, wherever and whatever the type of device, is the most comprehensive offering in digital music today," he said.
Initially, it will be impossible to transfer songs to a computer, an MP3 player or other electronic gadget, but Omnifone plans to launch a PC version in the short term.
Apple plans to launch the iPhone in the U.S. on June 29 but did not say when marketing his new device on European and Japanese markets.
