Cellular South is partnering with Thumbplay, a leading mobile entertainment provider, in the nation's first direct-to-consumer program that offers customers the ability to browse, buy and download music,ringtones, videos, wallpaper and games on their mobile phones via a "tunes and tones" link through the company's on-deck mobile web portal.
New York, NY - (November 11, 2008) – – Thumbplay® (www.thumbplay.com), the #1 mobile entertainment service in the U.S.*, today announced that its extensive library will now be featured on-deck with all Cellular South-supported mobile phones. Based in Ridgeland, Mississippi, Cellular South is the nation's largest privately owned wireless carrier. This is the first time a U.S. wireless carrier has engaged a direct-to-consumer content provider to populate its on-deck portal.
Cellular South customers will now be able to browse, buy and download Thumbplay content directly from their handsets or Thumbplay's Web site. Thumbplay offers a vast library of music, videos, games and more for purchase by Cellular South customers either a la carte or via subscription-based credits.
"Increasingly, our customers are using their mobile phones as full-service, mobile entertainment devices," said Jim Richmond, director of Corporate Communications at Cellular South. "Thumbplay allows us to offer our customers the broadest and deepest offering available coupled with fast, easy-to-use service and unmatched customer support."
Are Traasdahl, Thumbplay's CEO and founder, added: "Our ongoing investment in building the biggest and the best mobile catalog and in providing customers with a fun, hassle-free experience, continues to pay off. We are extremely proud to become the first direct-to-consumer mobile content provider in the U.S. to support a wireless carrier's portal."
Featuring music, videos, games and more, Thumbplay's extensive entertainment library currently consists of more than 100,000 pieces of licensed content. Their award-winning direct-to-consumer service is accessible on more than 2,000 devices among every major carrier in the U.S.
The company has maintained and grown its leadership position in the industry by providing consumers with the best possible customer experience, including live, "24/7/365" customer service and a commitment to delivering the largest catalog of entertainment possible. Thumbplay's "locker" service also allows users to automatically back-up and store purchased items.
Thumbplay features licensed music, video and gaming content from some of the world's largest entertainment companies, including EMI, Sony BMG Music Entertainment, Universal Music Group, Warner Music Group and Sony Pictures Television, as well as several independent labels and artists and video game companies. Thumbplay's mobile entertainment catalog is integrated into Clear Channel Radio, AOL and MSN Mobile sites, as well as iLike.com, one of the Web's leading social music discovery services. Based on Thumbplay's reputation for exceptional customer care and technological innovation, MTV recently tapped the company to power personalization content for the music giant's mobile content site.
Each month, Thumbplay.com gets more than five million unique visitors and its mobile (WAP) site (m.thumbplay.com) receives more than 12 million page views, making it one of the most popular mobile Web sites.
About Cellular South
Cellular South is a privately-owned diversified mobile communications company passionately committed to helping customers get the most out of their wireless devices and services. The company accomplishes this goal by providing the most reliable and advanced 3G nationwide wireless voice and data network, offering industry-leading unlimited flat rate plans, and through its online and in-store Discover Centers, which give customers easy, simple and convenient tools, tips, advice and information to get the most out of their mobile phone. For more information, visit www.cellularsouth.com.
About Thumbplay
Thumbplay, Inc. is defining the mobile entertainment experience for U.S. consumers. As the largest and fastest growing mobile entertainment content destination, Thumbplay gives consumers access to the broadest and deepest catalog in the industry, spanning audio, video and gaming content from the leading music labels and artists, game publishers and media companies. Its innovative delivery and marketing platform makes it easy for users to discover, manage, store and share mobile content online and on their wireless devices.
Headquartered in New York City, Thumbplay was founded in September 2004 by Are Traasdahl and Evan Schwartz. It is backed by Bain Capital Ventures, SoftBank Capital, i-Hatch Ventures, Redwood Partners, New Enterprise Associates, Meritech, Brookside Capital Partners and Cross Creek Capital. More information can be found at www.thumbplay.com or at m.thumbplay.com from a mobile phone.
