A full-scale trial of mobile TV has been launched in Britain, reports the BBC.
The Arqiva and O2 trial with 400 people in Oxford will test DVB-H (Digital Video Broadcast – Handheld) that lets mobiles receive direct TV signals. Sixteen channels will be available to the triallists, including BBC One and Two, ITV 1 and 2, and Channel 4.
Whether people will actually watch TV on a portable device is up in the air as is the technology to deliver it. Then there’s battery life. DVB-H uses a technology called “time slicing” which means up to eight hours of TV can be watched on one battery charge.
Only the information needed for the channel being watched is sent to the phone to conserve power.
| Mobile Multimedia Systems | Bandwidth Required per Average Audio Quality Radio Station kHz |
| DRM (Digital Radio Mondiale) | 25 (Shortwave Radio) |
| DVB-H (DVB-Handheld) | 39 (can use DAB or TV channels) |
| DMB (Digital Multimedia Broadcasting) | 60 (can use DAB radio channels) |
| DAB (Digital Audio Broadcasting) | 250 (Band III: 174-239 Mhz) and (L Band: 1.452-1.490 Ghz) |
DMB and DVB-H are the two dominant mobile television standards and both are based on COFDM to provide mobility. DVB-H had its start in Europe and is based on DVB-T, the digital terrestrial broadcast system there. It is in competition with Digital Multimedia Broadcasting (DMB), which adds MPEG-4 and other elements to digital radio channels (DAB) or other frequencies. It is already operational in Asia.
Qualcom’s MediaFLO is attempting to get a toehold in the United States using the 700 Mhz band (channel 55). All of these mobile video techniques multicast, so operators don’t need a million different frequencies to transmit to a million different listeners/viewers. It’s broadcasting with elements of VOD & PVR functionality.
The United States doesn’t have frequencies devoted to DAB. Instead HDRadio uses subcarriers on today’s FM bands while satellite radio broadcasters like XM use terrestrial repeaters (near 2.3 GHz). Radioscape and Texas Instruments make modules for DMB and DVB-H.
The Japanese, South Koreans and Ericsson of Sweden back DMB because they say the technology drains batteries even less than DVB-H and it handles more frames a second. Qualcomm’s MediaFLO will use channel 55 in the 700 Mhz band to deliver handheld multimedia the United States. Crown Castle is testing DVB-H at 1.7 GHz in in Pittsburgh and plans a nationwide rollout in the United States next year.
Korea’s biggest mobile phone operator, SK Telecom, launched a videocell satellite in the first half of the year. But the Korean Broadcasting Commission put the brakes on the service until next year in consideration of KBS, which is preparing a the terrestrial DMB service.
Terrestrial and Satellite DMB are competing in Korea. The satellite service will have a fee, while the terrestrial service will be free (with advertising support). South Korea will offer free terrestrial DMB broadcasting to handheld devices across the country next year after testing later this year in Seoul and the surrounding Kyonggi Province.
The Korean Broadcasting Commission has also been reluctant to allow free-to-air terrestrial mobile broadcasting until cellular providers are also given a chance to offer their own services. According to SK Telecom, there will eventually be a total of 39 channels – 11 for video, 25 for audio and three for data.
South Korea’s top mobile operator SK Telecom and its affiliate TU Media launched a satellite pay-TV service to mobile phones in May this year. SK Telecom says its satellite DMB business should reach breakeven in 2008 or in 2009.
Mobile companies are expected to have about 51 million users of mobile TV by 2009, making an estimated $6.6bn ( 3.5bn) in revenue, according to technology consultancy Strategy Analytics.
Japan’s MBSAT satellite has a 12-meter parabolic antenna with sufficient output power to enable signal reception on the ground by small antennas embedded in mobile gear. The hybrid broadcasting system handles direct reception and includes gap-fillers that enable reception in the shadow of buildings. Both direct reception and signals relayed by gap-fillers use the same 2.6-GHz frequency.
In ten years, Japan’s Internal Affairs and Communications Ministry hopes to launch a massive satellite with a 66 foot dish antenna for mobile, 100 megabits per second internet access in mountainous areas, remote islands, bullet trains, airplanes and ships.
The FCC has Approved a Big Mobile Satellite, using mobile satellite frequencies (with its own set of terrestrial repeaters). The FCC reallocated part of the 2 GHz MSS spectrum (15+15 MHz) to terrestrial fixed and mobile services and retained the bands 2000-2020 MHz and 2180-2200 MHz for mobile-satellite services.
Satellite radio repeaters could also provide digital media broadcasting in the United States. XM satellite radio uses terrestrial repeaters in their same assigned (DARS) “S” band (2320-2345 MHz). Now XM is buying up the 2.3 GHz spectrum.
SK-EarthLink may want a piece of that (WiBro) action. They’ve got Cellular/WiMax handsets ready to roll.
Mobile Satellite Services (at 2.2 GHz), may, in the future, provide some mobile video competition to XM satellite radio (using 2.3 GHz terrestrial repeaters), Crown Castle’s DVB-H (at 1.7 GHz), and Qualcomm’s MediaFLO (at 700 MHz).
The big three mobile television networks in the United States are shaping up to be Crown Castle’s nationwide DVB-H service, in the L band (1670 MHz to 1675 MHz), Qualcomm’s MediaFLO, with 6 MHz of spectrum in the 700 MHz band across the United States, and Aloha Partners, which may go head-to-head with Qualcomm on the 700 MHz band, and will do so with twice the spectrum.
Related DailyWireless stories include; Google WiFi, WiMax Handsets, Talkin’ Moxi, DVB-H TV From Pace, Intel On DVB-H, Digital Shortwave, Taiwan Goes for DVB-H, Laptop Television, Protostar Does the Planet, TiVo Your Radio, Battle at 3 Dot 5, Crown Picks Up More Towers, Navini Activates 2.3GHz in USA, The Free Triple Play and Global Mobile Television.
