Orange, T-Mobile to pilot UMTS-based mobile TV service (UK)Orange UK and T-Mobile UK intend to jointly pilot a new mobile TV and multimedia broadcast service in London using NextWave Wireless’ UMTS MBMS based TDtv solution. The pilot, scheduled for the second half of this year, will be targeted at people living or working in West London. During the six-month pilot Orange and T-Mobile UK customers will use TDtv-enabled WCDMA handsets to receive up to 24 high-resolution television channels along with 10 digital radio stations. Orange Mobile TV already offers a broad range of content including the major terrestrial channels BBC, ITV, Channel 4 and Channel 5, as well as Sky and most recently Setanta allowing Orange mobile TV customers to see live coverage of every televised match from the Barclays Premier League, while T-Mobile UK revamped its mobile TV offering last year, adding three Sky Mobile TV packages and eight BBC TV and radio channels.
The pilot will be powered by an end-to-end mobile broadcast solution developed by NextWave Wireless that will include TDtv network infrastructure based on the 3GPP UMTS TDD MBMS standard. NextWave will also provide a TDtv Device Integration Pack, a complete chipset and software package that enables handset vendors to quickly add TDtv to any multimedia enabled WCDMA handset. In addition, NextWave’s Packet Video (PV) subsidiary will provide a complete Electronics Programming Guide that will integrate the TDtv service with the operators’ existing 3G services. PacketVideo will also provide the pilot its new MediaFusion platform, a white-label, client-server software application that allows mobile operators to develop and launch on-device portals for rich media services.
