FlyCast says its mobile broadcast network will be ready for the BlackBerry (News - Alert) Curve, BlackBerry Bold and BlackBerry Storm smartphones from Research In Motion (RIM) on November 1. This was announced at the BlackBerry Developer Conference.

 

FlyCast's mobile broadcast network is first of its type to be available for BlackBerry smartphones. It will be free to download from the FlyCast mobile Web site.

 

The FlyCast network application delivers radio, video and podcasts over mobile broadband and Wi-Fi networks to mobile devices. It is a free alternative to satellite radio and the FlyCast network’s  users have grown  and also the content since its launch in January 2008.

 

Sam Abadir, FlyCast's CEO, said: "With the success of the recent consumer-oriented BlackBerry smartphones, it was an easy decision for us to add FlyCast support for the BlackBerry Curve, BlackBerry Bold and BlackBerry Storm. Our focus is on giving users the best possible mobile entertainment experience and these three smartphones are excellent examples of how to effectively combine consumer and business mobile functionality. Since our network delivers a broad spectrum of content, including news, talk, sports, traffic, weather and every genre of music, we're sure that BlackBerry users will quickly embrace FlyCast."

 

The FlyCast Mobile Broadcast Network has over 1000 stations from terrestrial and web broadcasters, like Entercom, Cox (News - Alert) Radio, AccuRadio, 977 Music, 1.FM, 1Club and radioIO. The network offers quality service and features, like StreamSlip, allowing users to continue to listen to a station even during extended periods without a connection.

 

The feature, Top of the Hour, allows people joining in late to listen from the beginning of news, talk and sports radio shows. The SongSkip feature allows jumping to the next song on certain webcast stations and also pausing on rest of the stations.

 

The BlackBerry smartphone version of FlyCast has background play for users to listen while they use their handset for other functions. It also supports playback through Bluetooth stereo headsets.