Vodafone on its own as Genie opts for revenue share

NEWS BT CellNet will give independent content providers the ability to bill their customers for WAP services using CellNet's network. The first deal has been cut between CellNet's Genie portal and an online music company which will allow customers to download ringtones from October, Genie's CEO Lawrence Alexander told silicon.com. Genie (soon to be rebranded O2) will take a variable commission on each deal, between 9 per cent and 50 per cent. Alexander said: "The deal depends on how unique the content is, whether we have exclusivity, and so on. But it's in our interests for these guys to make money." The announcement follows similar declarations from Orange and T-Motion (the portal operated by T-Mobile, owner's of the UK's One2One network). Only Vodafone is yet to join the club, but it can only be a matter of time. Until these announcements, many small independent content providers were struggling to find a source of revenue. Now they can depend on the mobile operators to provide a reliable stream of cash. Since their income will be proportional to users, they now have an economic incentive to drive more subscribers through their sites, which is good for content provider and operator alike. This business model closely resembles the model adopted by Japan's NTT DoCoMo, which has seen its i-mode mobile data service acquire over 22 million users.