Orbitcast

It is huge because this opens the door for XM and Sirius to get the other providers on board. Of course, Sprint has the worst customer service rating and terrible service.

Absolutely. I even bitched about Sprint starting the MSpot service here:
http://www.orbitcast.com/archives/2005/04/mspot_cell_phon.html

Sprint doesn't have the best coverage (though a merger with Nextel would help out a lot), and I'd rather have my cell phone do what it's supposed to do - CALL - than anything else. But the technology needs to grow, and this is a step in the right direction.

Ultimately, having the satellite radio technology INTEGRATED within the phone is the best because it's independent from the cell service, but SIRIUS a little while away for that. So the next best thing is to provide the content over the existing cell network, which is essentially just streaming internet radio.

This is a VERY positive development for Sirius because it indicates they aren't going to rely 100% on a satellite delivery system for their programming. It's going to be a multiple platform world, and both Sirius and XM will need to offer their programming on as many platforms---satellite, cell phone, internet, etc.---as possible.

I don't want to spend the money for a full-blown Sirius system and subscription just to hear Howard Stern, but if Sirius would offer just Howard via internet streaming/podcasting for about $5-$7 a month, I'd sign up ASAP.

Ryan - I agree, although Nextel is great for two-way, lousy for regular phone calls. IMO, XM's chipset would fit into a phone before Sirius', but is this the way to go? Maybe. The best thing is that this means that Satellite radio is here to stay!! Good move for Sirius, I'm hoping XM follows suit -- the more exposure, the better.

Whoopty fucking do, I can't wait to listen to radio on my cell phone *cough* SARCASM *COUGH*

There are currently only 3 phone models that work with this new Sprint service (which is not sat receiver in the phone but rather streaming audio delivered over the wireless network).

Sirius will stream the content in the 3G formats (aacPlus over RTSP/LATM) which work on the Sanyo MM-7400, MM-5600 and Samsung MMA700 phones. These are RTSP/LATM aacPlus audio capable phones that sound great and are stereo! Depending on the bitrate that the producer is using, it can sound BETTER than satellite radio.

This uses the same "technology" reported back a ways from Mspot - http://www.engadget.com/entry/1234000120038790/ - it seems Sprint is looking to get as much "high quality" programming available as possible... and it seems that Sirius really wants to be in the content providing business, not the satellite transmission business.

Satellite is great for in car use, but other locations won't work very well. The XM MyFi is an example of why a portable sat device doesn't work very well. Sprint is already shipping phones that deliver a very high quality music delivery system.

My company, SomaFM, has been broadcasting three of our stations in this format for about a month now... if you have one of the above phones you can listen to us for free- browse to http://somafm.com/soma.wml on your phone and pick one of the streams. Make sure you have your stereo headphones plugged in for the full effect.

"Whoopty fucking do, I can't wait to listen to radio on my cell phone *cough* SARCASM *COUGH*

Some people are just DICKS!!!

Wait until they offer the Howard Stern show on Cell phones. Ryan was right, this is f'n HUGE!

Could this work with Verizon's EVDO network?

Absolutely. Any of the 3G networks will support higher bandwidth media like streaming audio content. Cingular's EDGE, Verizon's EVDO, etc. There's plenty of OEM opportunities for both satellite radio providers out there.