3GSM attendees to get MBMS demonstrations

The market for MBMS mobile TV technology appears to be gaining steam as several major wireless vendors announced plans to showcase the technology at the upcoming 3GSM World Congress in Barcelona, Spain, next week.
L.M. Ericsson and a teaming of Qualcomm Inc. and Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd. separately announced plans to demonstrate Multimedia Broadcast Multicast Service services.
Interestingly, both parties touted their live demonstrations as the “world’s first.”
MBMS technology allows carriers to broadcast mobile TV services over their existing 3G networks. The technology stands in contrast to offerings like DVB-H, DMB and MediaFLO, which are essentially networks that stand separate from a carrier’s cellular network and are used to broadcast mobile TV services to cellphones with appropriate receivers.
By using a separate network for video broadcasts, carriers can offload data-heavy TV services and preserve capacity on their cellular networks for voice and data calls. However, MBMS technology is touted as a data-efficient and cheaper way for carriers to offer mobile TV services over their own cellular networks.
“Operators are increasingly looking to leverage existing infrastructure for multimedia services,” said Kurt Jofs, an Ericsson executive vice president. “MBMS is a simple, quick and easily deployed solution that allows different forms of content to be broadcast in different areas of the mobile network.”
However, the market for MBMS technology has yet to be proven, as carriers around the world have announced plans to use networks dedicated to mobile TV broadcasts. Indeed, Verizon Wireless in the Untied States soon plans to launch commercial services using Qualcomm’s MediaFLO network.