nancy_gohring
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Update: Orange gives mobile phones access to PC content

news
Dec 8, 20062 mins

New service lets mobile phone users access photos, videos, music stored on their PCs

France Télécom, the parent company of mobile phone operator Orange, is offering a service that lets mobile phone users access videos, music and other content from their PCs.

Called “Mon PC à distance,” it marks the second launch of the remote mobile access technology from Orb Networks in Europe.

The service requires users to download a free software client onto their PCs. They can then use any mobile device with standard browsing and multimedia capabilities to view photos or videos and listen to music stored on their PCs. No special client software is needed on the mobile device.

Mon PC à distance, announced Thursday, was actually introduced last month. The service may roll out in France Télécom’s other mobile markets, which include Switzerland, the Netherlands, Romania, Slovakia, and the U.K.

Orb introduced the mobile component of its offering in early November. Previously, Orb enabled remote PC access from other computers.

Orb is one of the services offered with 3 Group’s X-Series mobile data offering, although it can be accessed by any mobile phone with a browser and media player.

3 is charging customers £10 ($19) per month to use Orb and another service that lets them watch TV on their mobile phones. Orange customers pay €10 ($13) per month for unlimited use of Mon PC à distance.

nancy_gohring

Nancy Gohring is a freelance journalist who started writing about mobile phones just in time to cover the transition to digital. She's written about PCs from Hanover, cellular networks from Singapore, wireless standards from Cyprus, cloud computing from Seattle and just about any technology subject you can think of from Las Vegas. Her work has appeared in the New York Times, Computerworld, Wired, the Seattle Times and other well-respected publications.

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