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Disney Mobile shares subscriber stats

Marguerite Reardon Former senior reporter
Marguerite Reardon started as a CNET News reporter in 2004, covering cellphone services, broadband, citywide Wi-Fi, the Net neutrality debate and the consolidation of the phone companies.
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Marguerite Reardon
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Disney Mobile will soon celebrate its first anniversary, and the mobile virtual network operator is providing some statistics to show how consumers are using the service, according to a story published by RCR Wireless News.

Disney Mobile claims 30 percent of its subscribers make use of its GPS location-tracking services, the story says. Parents who use the tracking feature do so about every other day. The company also said that about 30 percent of Disney Mobile's location requests are made from the Web and 70 percent from the handset.

About 56 percent of Disney Mobile subscribers are adults and 44 percent are children. Twenty-three percent of kids using the service are on the child "starter" plan, which offers 200 anytime minutes for $25 per month. And more than 65 percent of its subscribers use the Family Alert prioritized text messaging feature.

Disney Mobile also told RCR it's developing a new photo application that will allow users to upload photos to a family photo page with one click. Each family member will have a page, as well as a shared page for the whole family. The photo sharing feature will also include parental controls so that parents can control whether or not kids can share photos. A family-centric calendar with a mobile alert feature is also being developed.

Currently, Disney Mobile uses Sprint Nextel's regular CDMA network. But the company is looking into selling handsets within the year that utilize Sprint's 3G high speed network, which uses EV-DO technology and will require handset upgrades.

While the new statistics released by Disney Mobile are interesting, the company still isn't publishing total subscriber numbers. Disney Mobile was one of many brands launching MVNOs last year. Mobile ESPN, which kicked off its service during the 2006 Super Bowl, was shut down after only eight months, because it couldn't sign up enough customers. Some reports suggest Mobile ESPN attracted only 30,000 subscribers. Now the entity is partnering with Verizon Wireless to offer exclusive ESPN features and content as part of its wireless service.