O2’s UK Mobile TV Trial Starts; Faster License Auction Needed

The Arqiva, Nokia and O2 mobile TV trial has started in UK…400 people in Oxford will test the technology that lets mobiles receive direct TV signals, and people’s desire to watch mobile TV. Sixteen channels will be available to the triallists, including BBC One and Two, ITV 1 and 2, and Channel 4.
This is a DVB-H trial…It is one of two formats or standards with which global broadcasters and the mobile industry have been experimenting across US, Germany, France, Finland, Sweden and other countries. Orange is due to take part in DVB-H trials of it in France at the beginning of October.
Guardian: The companies involved have said that UK media and telecom regulatory authority Ofcom must move faster to license the frequencies necessary to roll out mobile TV on a commercial basis. Arqiva and O2 jointly petitioned Ofcom over the summer to license Channel 46 in the UHF band, which they believe is optimal for broadcast TV on mobile devices. Unless Ofcom is proactive about its licensing the necessary spectrum may not be auctioned off until 2008.
The Mobile Video section is sponsored by Mobile TV Awards

Comments have been disabled for this post