Vodafone attaches DRM to 3G services — MobileMonday Global: Industry News

^{CoreMedia supplies OMA compliant system} Vodafone attaches DRM to 3G services

6 Dec 2004 at 13:13 GMT Timo Poropudas

Vodafone, the world’s largest mobile community has chosen a DRM systems from CoreMedia,. The companies have signed a global agreement for the implementation of CoreMedia’s comprehensive digital rights management infrastructure within Vodafone’s global service delivery platform for Vodafone live! with 3G.

CoreMedia’s solution, which has been developed in accordance with the Open Mobile Alliance’s (OMA) DRM specifications and is based on JAVA, ODRL and XML, will allow Vodafone to securely distribute multiple content formats such as music tracks and videos.

The solution offers differing levels of protection, from lightweight protection based on Forward-Lock and Combined Delivery, through to the encrypted form of Separate Delivery using the OMA standard.

“Vodafone live! is a world-class consumer offering, providing the best mobile content and entertainment services available today” said Guy Laurence, Global Marketing Director - Consumer, in November at Vodafone.

“Analysts expect data traffic and premium content revenues to grow to around USD 40 billion in 2007 once a viable DRM infrastructure has been put in place. By implementing CoreMedia’s DRM solution, Vodafone will be able to further enhance its leading position in the mobile industry,” said Soren Stamer, Co-Founder and CEO of CoreMedia AG.

Dario Betti, Analyst at Ovum, said: “Mobile operators have voiced their preference for open standards in DRM. Vodafone’s move is so far the most important step towards the OMA DRM solution by the mobile industry. CoreMedia was one of the pioneers in mobile DRM with a long history and experience in this market, but now they can also claim to be a leading player thanks to the scale and reach of this agreement.”

120 phones support DRM

“With this global deployment and over 120 handsets with the OMA DRM available, we will see the mobile content business flourishing in 2005 based on consumer friendliness and interoperability,” commented Dr. Willms Buhse, OMA Vice Chair and Director Products & Marketing at CoreMedia.

Vodafone has worked closely with handset manufacturers to ensure a consistent implementation of OMA DRM standards, to ensure a best of breed, end-to-end service for Vodafone live! customers.