3 Trials Alternative Mobile TV Technology

Written by Adam Gosling

Thursday, 16 August 2007

As almost the entire world comes into agreement after several trails of the DVB-H standard for Mobile TV, Hutchison 3 has announced it is trialling a new technology in conjunction with Ericsson. The trial using the relatively new Mobile TV standard, MBMS (Multimedia Broadcast Multicast Service) is the first of its kind in Australia and come less than a month after the European Union endorsed DVB-H as the preferred standard for Mobile TV (though currently does not mandate the standard). 3 Italy uses DVB-H for its Mobile TV offering. However, MBMS is being developed under the auspices of the global 3GPP standards body. MBMS uses existing 3G networks and spectrum for content delivery, building on existing infrastructure. To deliver MBMS, upgrades are made to the existing network as well as content and broadcast servers. 3G mobile phones with support for MBMS are expected to be available in 2008, said the company. MBMS is a different approach to Mobile TV combining both broadcast and unicast shows (though multicast is more accurate). It also gives consumers opportunity to interact by voting, sending messages, accessing downloads of related content and special promotions from advertisers. "MBMS as part of the 3G evolution is an attractive technology not only because of its flexibility and efficiency, but because it's quick and easy to deploy and leverages existing infrastructure," said Kursten Leins, Strategic Marketing Manager - Multimedia, Ericsson. "MBMS allows an unlimited number of users to watch the same mobile TV program at the same time in the same area, as well as enabling valuable user interaction with advertisements, campaigns and programs." "3 pioneered 3G in Australia, so it was a great opportunity to see the country's first MBMS technology trial run on Australia's first 3G network," Leins added. Since the MBMS signal can be pin pointed to specific geographies, it's also possible to broadcast different mobile TV programs to different areas, giving a locally-specific customer experience and also providing highly targeted mobile advertising opportunities. "We are very happy with the trial - the technology worked well and apart from delivering a good customer experience, it's extremely efficient in terms of network traffic and capacity, and provides new levels of customer involvement with their programs," said Michael Young, Director Technology & Services, 3 Australia. The technical trial was held in 3's Sydney Head office over 6 weeks and run by Ericsson who developed the trial system. Using four specially designed prototype handsets, Ericsson also installed equipment to simulate the content and broadcast servers on a section of 3's network so the customer and network experience could be seen. "The trial has been very interesting, and we'll continue to work with Ericsson to keep a close eye on the technology and the handsets to support MBMS as they develop," Young added. Related news items Nokia Buys Map Company For US$8 Billion -02/10/2007 Seven In Unwired Takeover Bid -26/09/2007 Major Players To Test WiMAX Interoperability -26/09/2007 Ringtone Service Wins Creativity Award -26/09/2007 Telstra Wireless Hits Speed Record -24/09/2007 Newer news items Vodafone UK Promises All-You-Can-Hear Music -12/09/2007 Next G Virtual Concert Schedule (mostly) Announced -12/09/2007 Yellow Cabs Offer New Mobile Booking Service -24/08/2007 Australian Idol Live On Next G -19/08/2007 Doh! Phone Pirate Could Get Five Years -17/08/2007 Older news items Nokia Adds PlayReady -06/08/2007 Mobile Apps Worth Billions To Operators -01/08/2007 Mobile TV Gets A Big Boost -19/07/2007 Google Begins Taunting Cell Phone Carriers -19/07/2007 Google Experiments With AdSense For Mobile -16/07/2007 Tag This Now: