Posts Tagged ‘Mobile TV’
Tuesday, April 15th, 2008
ICO Global Communications has announced its launched a new satellite that will allow it to start offering new mobile services later on in this year. The satellite, called ICO.G1, went up yesterday from Cape Canaveral, and reached its orbit later that afternoon.
The satellite will let ICO provide services including mobile TV, navigation and emergency assistance service “to be known as ICO mim (mobile interactive media)” across the US, Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands.
According to the Washington Post, the company reckons its mobile TV service will be different to others on the market because it will reach even the most remote parts of the US. Add in the two way communications the standard allows, and it looks like ICO has an interesting service on its hands. Don’t expect it to turn up on your mobile any time soon – the company is using a standard that hasn’t really been adopted yet.
Tags: emergency, ico, mim, Mobile TV, satellite, video
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Monday, April 14th, 2008
You know things can’t be all good with mobile TV when one of its biggest proponents – Nokia favours the DVB-H standard – admits that rollout aren’t going as well as the company had hoped.
Head of internet services t the Finnish handset maker, Niklas Savander, told Reuters that broadcast mobile TV “is a bit in turmoil… We have seen that there are multiple segments who are not interested in the broadcasting, but rather in downloads. Roll out is slower than also we anticipated a couple of years ago.”
Nokia may not have predicted it, but from the time mobile TV started being discussed, a lot of other people did. The success of downloads is probably due not only to their greater accessibility – everyone can get 3G, not everyone can get DVB-H programming – but also it seems to suit mobile usage patterns better. A three minute snack TV program is handy when you’re waiting for the bus, a 30 minute broadcast TV program less so.
Tags: dvb-h, Mobile TV, nokia
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Monday, April 7th, 2008
Remember all the discussion over what the recent 700 MHz spectrum auction would yield for the mobile industry? Well, at least part of that question has been answered: Qualcomm is using its newly won spectrum to broaden the capacity of its MediaFLO TV service, after spending $558.1 million in the auction.
The company said Qualcomm said the licences will let it offer more MediaFLO content in areas including Boston, Los Angeles, New York City, Philadelphia and San Francisco. The company has also got new spectrum around its office to help with R&D efforts.
Mobile TV is still an uncertain bet – anything that can help whip up some more interest from users can only be a good thing. Hopefully the capacity boost will let Qualcomm do some serious work on differentiating its content from what’s available on the home TV.
Tags: auction, mediaflo, Mobile TV, qualcomm, spectrum
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Friday, March 28th, 2008
AT&T has revealed it will be bringing Qualcomm’s MediaFLO mobile TV technology to users’ phones by May. FLO will launch on AT&T’s network this May on two new devices, the LG Vu and the Samsung Access.
AT&T said the service will feature two exclusive TV channels, but didn’t give any more information on their content. The operator did say however that it will offer full-length television content and sporting events and programming from leading entertainment brands CBS Mobile, Comedy Central, ESPN Mobile TV, FOX Mobile, MTV, NBC 2GO, NBC News2Go and Nickelodeon.
While there still seems to be a lot of skepticism from several quarters on whether mobile TV is a goer, the networks at least seem to be convinced. I can’t help but think that AT&T will need to add a lot more devices to its line up before too long if it wants to take mobile TV anywhere beyond a niche product.
Tags: access, AT&T, flo, LG, mediaflo, Mobile TV, qualcomm, samsung, vu
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Thursday, March 27th, 2008
The US could be getting another mobile TV service, according to The Financial Times. The paper quotes analysts as saying broadcaster Dish Networks “could be considering launching a mobile TV service to compete with the leading US mobile phone companies” after bidding at the US 700 Mhz spectrum auction and winning enough licences to “create a nationwide footprint”.
The speculation the spectrum will be used for mobile TV rather than voice or data stems from the nature of the spectrum Dish, through a company called Frontier Wireless, bought: the spectrum is suited to video but can’t handly two way communication.
But whether that actually translates to mobile TV remains to be seen. After all, few broadcast mobile TV services are up and running commercially, let alone are bringing in the revenue. Dish so far has refused to comment on its plans for the spectrum. I guess we’ll have to wait and see if there’s more mobile TV on the way.
Tags: data, dish, frontier wireless, Mobile TV, spectrum, video, voice
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Tuesday, March 18th, 2008
Good news for Nokia, not so great news for Qualcomm and MediaFLO: the European Commission has given the Nokia-backed DVB-H mobile TV standard the official thumbs up by adding it to the EU List of Standards. Now, member states “will be required to encourage the use of DVB-H”.
The Commission has also hinted that it won’t accept proprietary behavious from those involved in DVB-H, saying it wants to see ‘”transparent intellectual property rights regime, based on fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory terms and allowing low price of devices” and a transparent patent pool.
It always looked like the Commission was going to give DVB-H the nod, so this week’s announcement isn’t exactly a surprise, but I suspect will still be provoking some glass-raising at Nokia HQ. However, there are still the questions around spectrum, devices and consumer take-up for that matter to be solved before DVB-H actually gets into people’s pockets so don’t hold your breath for broadcast mobile TV any time soon.
Tags: broadcast, dvb-h, europe, european commission, Mobile TV, nokia
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Monday, March 17th, 2008
Mobile TV could soon be coming to the UK, with the news that Ofcom is planning to release spectrum which it says is appropriate for mobile telly. It plans to sell off the spectrum by auction, scheduled for the end of this April, while operators will need to get their applications in by 10 April.
The so-called L-Band spectrum, 1452 – 1492 MHz, can be used for “mobile multimedia services including mobile TV which could be deployed using a variety of technologies” Ofcom said. The spectrum will be sold off on a technology neutral basis and licences will be tradeable.
With almost all of the operators piloting some form of broadcast TV, I wonder if this release of spectrum will the auction winner move from test phase to a full-on commercial service launch.
Tags: L-band, Mobile TV, multimedia, Ofcom, spectrum
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Tuesday, March 11th, 2008
While all the ongoing specultion about where Motorola is going with its handset business trundle along in the background, the company is still laying down some cash for mobile investments. Motorola’s investment arm, Motorola Ventures has revealed its put some money into Quantum, a company that makes devices and software for DVB-H mobile broadcasting, although there’s no figure given on just how much Moto is investing.
It’s interesting to see investments in mobile TV that aren’t specifically targeted at mobile phones themselves, instead Quantum specialises in media-player type devices. However, the software it makes will doubtless interest mobile operators – it comes with the type of content protection software (read DRM) that record labels and movie studios are very keen on.
Whatever Motorola decides on handsets, it makes sense for Motorola to continue dipping its toe into mobile telly – it struck a deal with Nokia to co-operate on DVB-H development back in 2006 and it’s set top box business is still looking healthy. Perhaps there’s room for Moto to cross-breed Quantum’s mobile TV players with its own phones?
Tags: drm, investment, Mobile TV, motorola, quantum, ventures
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