Tune in to the world on your car radio

Asher Moses from The Age, January 7, 2009 - 4:25PM
Australian technology is powering the world's first internet car radio, which will soon provide drivers worldwide with access to 30,000 stations including online broadcasts and AM and FM stations from around the globe.The technology was developed by Melbourne-based online radio aggregator miRoamer, which has inked a deal with one of the largest producers of car radios in the world, German-based Blaupunkt.The technology, unveiled in prototype form at the 2009 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, poses a significant threat to traditional terrestrial broadcasters such as Austereo because it opens them up to competition from tens of thousands more radio stations from around the world.Today, it is difficult to access live internet radio broadcasts without sitting in front of a computer.Blaupunkt will produce the radios, which should soon be integrated into the latest models by car manufacturers such as Ford, Holden, Mercedes, BMW and Audi. The product will also be sold separately for those who want to install it in their cars.George Parthimos, CEO of Doncaster-based miRoamer, said in an interview his company had signed agreements with internet radio stations from all over the world and brought them together so they could be accessed through miRoamer.com and on devices including car radios and mobile phones."Some of them are small garage type stations that might only have five or 10 listeners all the way up to broadcasters which have an audience of up to 5 or 6 million people monthly," he said.All up, 30,000 stations are offered, which includes established AM and FM radio broadcasts from all over the world."You can listen to anything from traditional terrestrial stations, to internet-only stations, to genre-based stations - jazz, rock, pop, '80s, '70s, comedy, talk, finance," Parthimos, 37, said."You're not tied down to the limitations of terrestrial radio. We see this as an evolution of radio."The Blaupunkt radio accesses the internet by connecting via Bluetooth to the driver's mobile phone, which must be hooked up to a telco's 3G mobile broadband plan.Parthimos said a 2GB monthly data plan would be required to power the internet radio for a month on the average drive to and from work.He admitted that amount "sounds exorbitant in Australia", where mobile broadband data allowances are low and users are slugged with high fees for exceeding their limits.Competition between telcos has brought prices down and increased data allowances to 10GB on the high-end plans, but this pales in comparison with the US where mobile broadband plans come with unlimited data.As well as the cost of the mobile broadband plan, internet car radio users will need to pay a fee for the radio itself - Parthimos says it will retail for about $US399 ($560) - and a monthly subscription fee of about $15 to access the stations.The product is expected to be launched in the US and Europe in the second half of this year, before coming to Australia next year as a stand-alone product and built into new cars from the factory.