June 09, 2009

By By Andre Paine, London

Sony Ericsson's unlimited music download service PlayNow Plus has launched in Austria.

The service, powered by London-based Omnifone, is available on pre-licensed Sony Ericsson handsets in partnership with mobile network Orange, beginning with the W595 model from today (June 9).

Tariffs begin at ?49 ($68.70) for the handset and ?17.50 ($24.50) a month for an all-inclusive Orange data plan. Users in Austria get unlimited access to more than 3 million tracks, including repertoire from all the majors, and choose 100 tracks to keep in MP3 format every six months.

Handsets are pre-loaded with 1,000 copy-protected tracks. Access to the unlimited music stored on the phone and PC remains as long as the user continues to subscribe and downloaded tracks would also transfer to any new PlayNow Plus handset.

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