VarietyAsiaOnline.com is reporting that 3 Mobile TV licenses will be put up for auction in mid-2009. Apparently the licenses will run for 15 years, allow up to 20 TV channels to be shown, and use the DVB-H standard. Oh, and an additional 6 using T-DMB (a predominantly Korean standard).
Well this is all good news as a push for DVB-H, but how interesting that another standard gets matted up against it. You can see the sorts of unique factors in Hong Kong that cause for this ‘democratisation’ of standards, but I wonder whether practically Operators might collaborate (if they went for a license).
The good news is won’t have to wait too long to find out – those that win have to have a service up and running by the end of 2010!
Axel Technologies, a global pioneer in multistandard mobile TV, announced today that they have secured a new 2.4 million euro investment for business and product development. Axel Technologies develops mobile TV technology that will enable device manufactures to bring mobile TV to all portable devices. Their multistandard-multiplatform technology will support all the key mobile TV standards.
The investment will be used to accelerate Axel’s global sales and marketing, and to intensify R&D efforts focused on anticipated developments in the mobile TV market. According to RNCOS, mobile TV subscribers are forecasted to reach 250 million by 2010. Juniper Research estimates that over 330 million people will have mobile TV enabled phones by 2013.
Axels’s technology enables an easy-to-use mobile TV interface to be available on other devices beyond mobile phones as mobile TV functionality now easily can be added to mobile internet devices, portable media players, netbooks or car navigators.
The device manufacturers are now looking for a technology that enables them to manufacture global devices rather than customised solutions for each region or market. With a wider range of different devices available worldwide, operators and broadcasters will have the basis on which to create a successful mobile TV business.
Comment: couldn’t agree more – let’s get more interoperable, multi-standard Mobile TV tech out there as soon as possible! Without it, we are only going to get stovepipe solutions!
You can check out Axel Technologies’ website here.
No, not the university. Ever hear of Princeton Technology? Yeah, me neither. We had spotted a compact USB Bluetooth adapter from them awhile back, but it turns out they do phones too, although they look primarily geared towards the Asian market. We just got word of a new model (PTCD 801) on the way packing two SIM card slots like many of their other handsets, but can also record TV as you’re watching it. Specs include…
-Network: Quadband GSM 800/900/1800/1900
-Dual SIM, dual standby
-2.6 inch touchscreen, handwriting support
-Free analog TV, record at the same time
-Dual camera, web camera, DV function
-Accelerometer
-Bluetooth 2.0
-FM radio
-MP3/MP4 Player
-Can use Nokia (NYSE: NOK) BL-5C batteries, 3.5MM standard headphone jack
-Mini USB Cable Port
-Language: English/French/Spanish/Portugese/Italian/German/Turkish/Arabic/Persian/Polish/Russian etc.
No info on carrier or release date, but suppliers are pimping it out, so a release should be soon.
Well a lot of stuff went down at CES, and not the least of which was some Mobile video too….
ICO Global Communications and Alcatel-Lucent (NYSE: ALU) demonstrated a satellite-terrestrial network with two-way interactivity at CES. The ICO part apparently delivers “live television, interactive navigation and two-way communications to a wide variety of mobile and portable devices“.
Interestingly, ICO run the ICO G1, which is a commercial satellite, covering the entire US – and that’s supplemented by a terrestrial network for those dense urban areas where SATs are not all that good at covering. Not only did the network run at CES, but it’s in live trials in places like Las Vegas. AlcaLu’s part in this was developing mobile video tech based on DVB-SH, and also acting as SI (systems integrator).
Of course, the question that I would ask is how/if/when this distills to a commercial service for end-users – clearly a DVB-SH + terrestrial patchwork could prove a very good way to delivery consistent mobile video to users – but as we’ve seen in many other countries – mobile broadcast video hasn’t gained much traction.
Anyhow, we’ll see how this one plays out – for the moment it’s back to streaming or downloading over 3G ….
The US is set to see mobile TV become reality in late 2009. The Open Mobile Video Coalition has announced that they’re on track to go live with free mobile DTV broadcast in Fall 2009. The over-the-air broadcast would be made available for viewing to anyone with a compatible mobile DTV receiver – a stark departure from wireless carriers’ practice of offering subscription-based mobile TV streams over their wireless network.
Broadcasters have committed to launching mobile DTV broadcasts with 63 TV stations across 22 US cities. The station breakdown will consist of “14 NBC affiliates, nine ABC affiliates, nine CBS affiliates, five FOX affiliates, nine ION Television affiliates, four CW affiliates and four MyNetworkTV affiliates, along with nine additional PBS stations that are in discussions with the OMVC to join the 2009 launch.” It’s safe to say that the mobile TV broadcast initiative will offer something for just about every demographic.
Other parts of the world have been enjoying terrestrial mobile TV broadcasts for some time now, but the mobile TV push has largely failed to catch on with any real significance. It remains to be seen whether or not free broadcasts will help drive mobile TV uptake in the US. With the economy in the toilet and consumers looking to save a buck whenever they can, the prospect of free mobile TV might be enough to coax users to try it out – after they buy the compatible hardware, that is…
In yet another video from the good folks at LG, Frank Lee tells us all about ATSC mobile digital TV, and how we’ll soon be watching it live from our mobile devices and more. The first device he pulls out to show us looks to be the LG Vu, and as you can see there looks to be some sort of antenna attachment inserted to make it all happen. Frank then goes on to show us a portable DVD player and netbook computer, both playing live digital TV. Cool. With the US is going to full-digital broadcasts of all TV shows this February…This is surely a sign of things to come! I can’t wait to watch live TV on my handheld device no matter where I happen to be!
The 2009 NHL All-Star Game will take place at the Bell Centre
Hockey fans in Canada will be pleased to know that Bell is moving ahead with guns-a-blazin’ on the mobile TV tip (jeez, did that sentence even make sense!?). The National Hockey League is working exclusively with Bell for all of their Mobile NHL hockey feeds. Customers on Bell can subscribe for $8 per month. The fee will give Bell hockey fanatics access to live NHL games on NHL Audio, NHL Centre Ice Mobile, real-time text alerts… plus in-game and post-game video highlights. As a special little ’spiff’, Bell is including NHL wallpapers, ringtones and more as part of the monthly fee.
No doubt the partnership has a great deal to due with the fact that the NHL is heading to Montreal for the All-Star game this season. Where will the game be played? The Bell Centre. Imagine that
For more information, a list of compatible devices, and more… head on over to Bell.
After those series of announcements by the EU that DVB-H was the way to go for Mobile TV (check one we posted about here), it has now decided that actually multiple standards might be better than just one TV tech:
Mobile Europe points out that last week’s EU statement said: “Aspects related to interoperability and roaming for mobile TV should be given due consideration in light of the wireless nature of the services”, a contrast with comments by Commissioner Viviane Reding in March, that said: “For mobile TV to take off in Europe, there must first be certainty about the technology.”
Great… well that’s really going to help speed things along! Joking aside though, multiple standards may just end up the way things are going anyway, because whether a service can make money (usually calculated through it’s business model) is often decided by a range of factors, several of which might be unique to the region in question. I bet we’ll see “Mobile TV” continue in it’s fragmented manner for the foreseeable future….
The four Mobile OpCos in Poland are working together on a bid for a DVB-H license. The operators, PTC, P4, Polkomtel, and PTK Centertel will each have a 25% stake in the JV. Apparently “The Office of Electronic Communications” is holding the tender for DVB-H spectrum, with applications to be in by mid-Jan 09.
See, this is how Mobile TV ought to be organised – costs shared across all the Operators, and utilising the cell towers of everyone involved, which sorts out another problem of coverage rapidly too. With the might of all Operators in a country involved, getting handset vendors to provide the right specifications on their handsets becomes easier too.
I’d love to see this example rolled out in other countries…. however, for various reasons I don’t see it happening – the UK for example is voraciously competitive, and the main OpCo’s are desperately trying to differentiate, not converge on a service Yah boo.
The N96 has GPS AND TV - would that be a proposed tax double-whammy?
The EC is considering putting a 14% import tax on handsets with integrated GPS or TV!
Apparently there are already import taxes on devices with external TV tuners, but Mobiles are currently exempt – however the EC believes that since the Mobiles can do more than simple phone functions, then they ought to be subject to different taxes. The effect this would have is to penalise those handset vendors external to the EU, which would include the likes of Samsung, and LG, amongst others.
Non-EU vendors though are claiming the actual effect of that tax might be up to 25%, and the “European Information and Communications Technology Association” (which includes companies like Apple (NSDQ: AAPL), Motorola (NYSE: MOT), and LG) is lobbying strongly against the proposed tax changes.
Well, well – not a good suggestion in my view, and one which would create a number of issues – ultimately though, more expensive handsets for you and me
VarietyAsiaOnline.com is reporting that 3 Mobile TV licenses will be put up for auction in mid-2009. Apparently the licenses will run for 15 years, allow up to 20 TV channels to be shown, and use the DVB-H standard. Oh, and an additional 6 using T-DMB (a predominantly Korean standard).
No, not the university. Ever hear of 
Yah boo.
