3 unveils LaTre mobile-TV service

Mobile operator 3 Italia yesterday unveiled its new mobile-TV service LaTre, revealing plans to sign up 500,000 new customers by the end of 2006. The cellco said the service will comprise 15 channels and will include live coverage of the World Cup football matches from Germany when it starts in June; 3 has exclusive rights in Italy to broadcast the matches to mobile phones. The cellco said that it will increase the number of channels to 20 by the end of the year to 30 by the end of 2007 and 40 in 2008. At the end of 2005 3 Italia claimed 5.57 million customers.