Sharp has announced that it is talking to about 30 countries about its dual-mode mobile TV chip, the . The company touts the chip as a “world’s first” as it is capable of supporting two rival mobile TV standards used in Europe - DVB-H and T-DMB. Sharp plans to increase its production capacity for the chip to 2 million units a month – up from its current capability of around 300,000 units a month.
However, South Korean electronics giant Samsung also has its eyes fixed on that market and even has products already that can beat Sharp’s offering. It has developed a multi-standard decoder, the S3C4F31, and multi-band RF tuner, S5M8602, chipset which supports multiple digital mobile TV standards. At the time, both chips were among the first to use 65nm processing.
The list of supported standards includes both DVB-H (for mobile phones) and DVB-T (regular digital TV) plus T-DMB. It also includes support for DAB-IP which is used in the UK by Virgin for the Movio service and ISDB-T 1, which is popularly known as One-Seg and is used in Japan. Other rivals watching the market include Freescale, Broadcom and Philips.
Wireless Mobile Telecom Wireless News
Nokia announced infrastructure for mobile TV technology based on DVB-H.They announce their first handset with integrated DVB-H tuner dubbed the Nokia N92.
The Nokia N92 features a design like a little portable DVD player. It features a nice 2.8″ anti-glare QVGA screen with 16 million colors.
Users can set reminders to watch their favorite TV programs, create personal channel lists and subscribe to TV channel packages. The Electronic Service Guide (ESG) contains information about the available TV channels, programs and services. Other mobile TV features include watching time of up to four hours, recording and 30 seconds replay.
The Nokia N92 is also an XpressMusic device, with up to 2 GB memory card support, offering storage for up to 1500 songs delivered through the built-in stereo speakers or a stereo headset.
Other features include 2MP Digital camera, FM-Tuner, Wi-Fi, infrared, Bluetooth, USB 2.0.
Wireless Mobile Telecom Wireless News
UDcast has announced a strategic cooperation with Zentek, an integrated solutions provider for Digital TV, IPTV, wireless broadband, mobile phone and car entertainment devices, to provide the Japanese and Far East Asia markets with the mobile TV standard DVB-H.
Under the terms of the non-exclusive cooperation, Zentek will act as the reseller and integrator of UDcast’s DVB-H mobile TV products in these markets to bring the tools for Japanese manufacturers and Asian broadcasters enabling delivery of competitive products and services for this global standard. In Japan, the equipment provided by UDcast and Zentek will enable manufacturers to develop and produce mobile phones, notebooks, chipsets, in-car TV receivers and other devices compatible with DVB-H technology.
As the first result of their cooperation in the Far East, Zentek and UDcast provided the DVB-H solution for TV2Go, a Digital Mobile TV Broadcasting trial operated by PGK Media in Singapore, where Zentek was appointed as main system integrator and UDcast supplied the DVB-H network equipment. The trial was announced June 19 during Broadcast Asia 2007. UDcast’s equipment is also deployed in two Asian commercial Mobile TV networks (Vietnam and Philippines) and more than 10 trials in the Far East Asia region.
There will be approximately 446 million mobile TV subscribers worldwide by the end of 2011.
“UDcast already has a long successful track record in Japan and Far East Asia. Now, in order to best serve our customers, we are expanding our local presence and offering of DVB-H equipment in these markets,” said Jas Saini, CEO, UDcast. “Zentek’s solid relationships with UDcast’s potential manufacturer customers in Japan and strong technical competencies in the broadcasting area will enable us to provide the best possible customer service and perfect understanding of the local user’s needs.”
“We are excited to work with UDcast, giving Zentek the opportunity to complete our product offering with the most advanced and most sold DVB-H solution,” said Takashi Nakamuro, General Manager, Zentek Technology Japan Inc. “UDcast is witnessing a very high international growth rate in response to the projected domination of mobile TV and manufacturers’ development of DVB-H-enabled handsets and other mobile devices.”
In addition to the DVB-H mobile TV technology, Zentek and UDcast will also provide UDcast’s satellite IP acceleration products to satellite operators. Japanese satellite service providers will now be able to provide satellite transmission services that integrate seamlessly into complex enterprise and government networks, taking into account all stringent performance and security requirements.
Wireless Mobile Telecom Wireless News
Russia’s AFK Sistema group plans to invest USD200 million to create a new mobile TV network. The DVB-H network is expected to be launched next year and will cover 16 cities with populations of over one million, plus the entire Moscow region. The network will be made available not only to subscribers of Sistema’s cellular subsidiary MTS, but also to customers of other operators. Local website Cnews reports that the network deployment is being carried out by Sistema subsidiary Sistema Mass-Media. The firm expects 350,000 subscribers to sign up in the medium term.
Wireless Mobile Telecom Wireless News
According to reports in the Czech Business Weekly, Czech mobile operator T-Mobile is suing the Czech Radio and Television Broadcasting Council (RRTV) over the company’s failure to secure a DVB-H licence. The cellco was unlikely to get a permit – as local media laws would have disbarred it – but T-Mobile’s law suit is designed to draw the attention of the country’s Constitutional Court to the discriminatory nature of Czech media law. Although T-Mobile was awarded a 60-day permit for a pilot trial of DVB-H last year, its application for a full licence was turned down as under local law, a mobile operator is prohibited from broadcasting either its own content or content purchased from a third party. A spokesman for the cellco’s legal team, Petr Josefi, said: ‘The lawsuit will be filed against the council, but the aim is to be able to ask the Constitutional Court whether the fact that we are not allowed to broadcast content isn’t against the Constitution. We are convinced that forbidding a great number of subjects to gain a content broadcasting license or even to register isn’t justifiable.’ T-Mobile has already lodged a complaint with the European Commission, which is understood to be currently examining the complaint.
Wireless Mobile Telecom Wireless News
After almost a year of regular hype-building announcements, Doordarshan (DD) has finally launched its Mobile TV pilot with Nokia. Indiatimes reports that at present 8 channels are being beamed within 10-12 km of Akashwani Bhawan in Delhi, and can be viewed by anyone with DVB-H compatible handsets, between 5:30am and midnight. The channels being broadcast include DD National, DD News, DD Sports, DD Bharati, DD Urdu, DD Punjabi, DD Bangla and DD Podhigai. The number of channels is expected to be increased to 16. This pilot is in collaboration with Nokia, and at Convergence India earlier this year, Lloyd Mathias, Director-Marketing for Motorola had confirmed that they are also in talks with broadcasters for mobile TV trials.
However, readers should bear in mind that DVB-H is a terrestrial broadcasting technology, and only public broadcaster Doordarshan has license for terrestrial broadcasting, hence a monopoly. Another alternative is DVB-SH for reception of satellite channels, but both DVB-H and DVB-SH require handsets with built in receivers. I’ve seen demonstrations of both DVB-H, DVB-SH and Qualcomm’s MediaFLO at expo’s in Delhi, but one really can’t detect issues with clarity of reception under such test conditions.
Wireless Mobile Telecom Wireless News
A panel of wireless industry leaders assembled in Brussels Tuesday at a regulatory workshop organized by mobile TV industry lobby group FLO Forum to urge the European Commission to support competing mobile TV standards rather than forcing operators conform to DVB-H technology. Mobile execs and experts argued that the ongoing evolution of mobile TV demands time and market flexibility to determine which technological standard will dominate: “Why would you wish at this early stage to insist on any particular standard when we do know that many other possibilities are available?” said Jens Arnbak, chair of tele-information techniques in the electrical engineering department of Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands, according to MarketWatch. Added FLO Forum president Kamil Grajski, “Consumers aren’t that interested in the technology wars. Consumers benefit from technology neutral regulation.”
European Telecoms Commissioner Viviane Reding plans to call for standardized DVB-H deployment this summer, believing operator rollout will accelerate if a single industry standard is in place across the 27-nation European Union. Without a single standard, Reding said “It will be impossible to invest with confidence in new innovative technologies.”
Wireless Mobile Telecom Wireless News
The consortium of cellcos including Vodafone Germany, T-Mobile Deutschland and O2 Germany that intends to launch a mobile TV service based on DVB-H technology has attracted the attention of the federal cartel office, reports Telecompaper, quoting the Financial Times Deutschland. The office is to investigate the trio, and will take three months to look into possible competition breaches of the new service. The three operators plan to launch the DVB-H service at the beginning of 2008 and hope to operate a nationwide network, though this still has to be approved by the cartel office.
Wireless Mobile Telecom Wireless News
Broadcast transmission provider Arqiva and O2 Ireland have launched the country’s first DVB-H mobile-broadcast-TV consumer trial, in Greater Dublin. Arqiva trialed DVB-H in the UK with O2 last year. In the Irish trial, users can watch 13 channels, including RTE 1, RTE 2, TV 3, Sky Sports, Sky News, Setanta Sports and Discovery Channel, and music and games channels with interactive features. Trialists will be able to select programs from an on-screen service guide, search for specific items and set their handset to alert them when their favorite show starts. The handset used in the trial is the Nokia N92. The trial will run until the end of August and is designed to find out how viewers catch up on programs and how they keep up with news and sports.
- September 28th, 2006
- 2:30 am
Irish 3G operator, 3 Ireland, said Monday that it has been awarded a license by regulator ComReg to trial broadcast mobile TV services for one year.
3, which already runs a 3G streaming TV service over its networks, is understood to be looking at alternative technologies to take mobile TV forward. DVB-H technology which the Irish unit plans to trial is a digital broadcast platform which promises to increase the number of channels available as well as introduce new features such as interactive TV. One of the other benefits of broadcast technology is that it eliminates the need to buffer the content, unlike with streaming services. DVB-H is championed by Nokia and Samsung
Robert Finnegan, 3 Ireland’s managing director hinted that he expects Ireland to be in a position to switch over to digital TV before many other European countries. “Ireland has a high take-up of digital TV services compared to many EU countries with 42 per cent of all households using digital TV services,” he said.
The UK is not expected to switch over to digital until 2010/2011. Other operators in the 3 group are also looking at DVB-H. 3 Ireland’s sister company in Italy launched a DVB-H service called WalkTV earlier this year and is already broadcasting mobile TV to 140,000 plus customers.
3 Italia bought regional broadcaster Canale 7 last year, giving it a network that covers 40 per cent of the population and a license for the spectrum.
Source-http://blogtwopointzero.blogspot.com
Technorati : 3G, DVB-H, Ireland, Mobile, Nokia, Samsung, Wireless
Ice Rocket : 3G, DVB-H, Ireland, Mobile, Nokia, Samsung, Wireless
Sharp, Samsung keep eyes on market for mobile TV tuners
