Beijing, Jan. 4 (Xinhuanet)-- Motorola, the world's No. 2 cell phone maker, unveiled Tuesday an ambitious music radio service for cellphones that also plays over car and home stereos.

    Motorola iRadio, featuring 435 channels, would be sold by wireless service providers to their subscribers for between $7 and $10 per month ¡ª a few dollars cheaper than the satellite radio networks that would be among the phone-based service's immediate rivals.

    The iRadio service will include 435 commercial-free radio channels, including genres it identifies as Heavy Metal, Rockin' Cowboys and Angry Women. Its satellite rivals also provide specialized music channels, often without ads.

    This service, in some respects, puts Motorola in competition with XM Satellite Radio Holdings and Sirius Satellite Radio, which sell radio subscriptions for car and home radios, according to the report of Reuters.

    Motorola expects about 90% of its content to be loaded on phones from the Internet over a personal computer, rather than broadcast over the air, in this case a cellular network.

    That would mean less of a strain on the limited capacity wireless operators have for mobile calls, e-mail and Internet services. Enditem

    (Agencies)