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The top two U.S. wireless providers are starting to let customers use their mobile phones to remotely record television shows, hoping that the new service will help them compete against rivals.

AT&T Inc. said yesterday that subscribers can now use their cell phones to record shows on home TVs via HomeZone, a video-on-demand service that AT&T offers with satellite TV provider EchoStar Communications Corp.

Starting next week, No. 2 mobile provider Verizon Wireless, which is owned by Verizon Communications Inc. and Vodafone Group PLC, also plans to let its customers use their phones to program TiVo Inc. digital video recorders (DVR) remotely.

The idea, which wireless operators have been promising for months, is to better integrate wired and wireless services to encourage customer loyalty amid increased competition from cable providers, which have added telephony to their Web and television services.

Sprint Nextel Corp., the No. 3 wireless service, is also planning a similar offer later in the year through its venture with cable providers such as Comcast Corp. and Time Warner Cable Inc.

Analysts said such services may help attract or retain customers, but several said that only a small number of wireless subscribers would want to remotely program DVRs.

Less than 10% of respondents to a recent survey said they wanted such a feature, according to JupiterResearch analyst Ina Sebastian, whose firm organized the survey.

Consumers can already remotely program DVRs from companies such as TiVo by using desktop computers with Internet connections at no extra charge.

They can also set their recorders to capture favorite shows months in advance, said analyst Roger Entner at Ovum Ltd. who questioned the addressable market for AT&T.

"It makes scatterbrained HomeZone customers a little bit more happy," he said.

Verizon Wireless will charge $1.99 a month for its service, which will work on more than 12 phone models, covering the vast majority of its customers, spokesman Jeffrey Nelson said.

AT&T said its service would be available free to cell phone users who subscribe to its HomeZone service, which costs $9.99 a month along with a subscription to EchoStar's satellite TV service and AT&T's broadband Internet service.

AT&T did not say how many customers have signed up for HomeZone. It has yet to offer the service in the market regions of BellSouth Corp., which it recently bought.