The Networks Stream To Your Cell Phone on AT&T

I managed to play with AT&T’s Cellular Video offering today. On their site, they offer clips to a wide variety of things. On the front page, there’s typically a link to the latest headlines from CNN. If you dig deeper, you’ll find complete episodes of all your favorite shows, including ABC’s hit Desperate Housewives!

For this service to be worthwhile, you really have to have a 3G phone. And you have to have a phone AT&T believes to be 3G. I tried several of my Nokia handsets with the URL http://cingularvideo.cingular.com, which is the URL their service uses, and no joy. If it wasn’t one of the phones they recognize, they don’t let you in, period.

It’s a shame. There’s a lot of great mobile-ready content on there, available for free! I guess this is one of those reasons they can push you to buy one of their handsets versus buying an “open” device, but why lock it up like this, AT&T?