AT&T Adopts Pandora Radio on 3G Handsets

Fans of Pandora's customized net radio can now get it on the go from a handful of select AT&T phones.

The Music Genome Project’s popular Pandora radio will finally break free of the desktop, now that AT&T has enabled the music service on many of its 3G phones. Although AT&T has long offered streaming music for subscribers, Pandora is unique in the way it allows users to select songs.

Using an enormous database, Pandora catalogs the attributes of each song it carries, and can create an entire radio station of similar songs with just one selection. By giving each song a thumbs up or thumbs down as it plays, users can continue to fine-tune the station to their tastes the more they listen.

The mobile Pandora experience will include all of the same features as on the desktop, including the rating system, pausing and skipping songs, looking back through previous tracks, as well as song title, album and artist name for a currently playing song. Currently, only eight AT&T phones support Pandora: the Samsung SYNC, a717 and a737, the Motorola V3xx and RAZR 2, LG trax and existing LG CU400 and CU405 models.

Mobile users can try Pandora free for five days, but unlike traditional users, they will eventually have to shell out for it. Basic service goes for $8.99 per month, or an upgraded Media Max bundle with unlimited browsing, streaming video, other content and 200 text messages is available for $19.99 monthly.