The mobile TV space continues to heat up, with rumors pegging Sprint Nextel Corp. and Verizon Wireless showing significant interest in the technology.
Specifically, a report from Zachary Research predicts Verizon will use Crown Castle International Corp.’s DVB-H mobile TV network starting next year. Separately, analysts from Deutsche Bank foresee Sprint Nextel Corp. using Qualcomm Inc.’s MediaFLO technology to offer mobile TV services, according to reports.
Qualcomm, Crown Castle and Verizon declined to comment, while Sprint Nextel officials were not immediately available for comment.
Although it’s unclear whether such industry speculation is accurate, the rumors verify the increased hype surrounding mobile TV services.
Already SK Telecom in South Korea offers a mobile TV service running on its satellite-based DMB technology, along with several handsets from LG Electronics Co. Ltd. and Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. And NTT DoCoMo Inc. in Japan recently introduced its P901iTV phone, which will be able to receive mobile TV broadcasts when Japanese broadcasters introduce digital broadcasting technology in April. Further, carriers including Vodafone Group plc and O2 are testing DVB-H mobile TV networks in Europe.
In the United States, Crown Castle and Qualcomm are racing to roll out mobile TV networks, which they plan to resell to wireless carriers. However, it’s unclear whether U.S. carriers will be interested in the technology. The mobile TV market is unproven, the technology is in its infancy, and no one is quite sure how things will play out.
Already, Sprint streams live TV content over its CDMA 1xRTT network, averaging between five and 15 frames per second. Verizon Wireless recently launched Vcast over its CDMA EV-DO network, offering downloadable TV clips running at even faster frame rates. But Crown Castle and Qualcomm want to take the service one step further-they’re building dedicated networks that will offer TV content outside of carriers’ standard cellular networks. Phones with special tuners will be able to receive the broadcasts. The goal is to offload data-heavy applications like streaming video onto a dedicated broadcast network, thereby preserving cellular networks for voice and Internet access.
“Our modeling reveals that the capacity of a typical W-CDMA network could be exceeded as soon as 2007, for example, if 40 percent of 3G users take up mobile TV and video services and consume eight minutes of video per day,” said Alastair Brydon with Sound Partners, which recently issued a report on mobile TV.
Such predictions are surprising since carriers only recently launched their 3G networks. In the United States, Sprint Nextel and Verizon are in the very early stages of rolling out EV-DO offerings, so they may not yet see a need to offload their video streams onto a separate network like DVB-H or MediaFLO.
Nonetheless, it seems both Qualcomm and Crown Castle are pushing full steam ahead with their mobile TV plans. Qualcomm said it would conduct commercial MediaFLO trials in the United States next year, with an eye on a commercial deployment by the fourth quarter of 2006. The company recently conducted its first over-the-air streaming video demonstration at the recent CTIA Wireless I.T. show in San Francisco.
As for Crown Castle, the company earlier this year said it plans to offer commercial DVB-H services starting next year, and hit 20 to 30 markets by the end of 2007. The company earlier this year said it planned to offer a commercial trial in Pittsburgh in July of this year. A trial also is under way in New York. A Crown Castle executive declined to provide an update on the company’s DVB-H progress.
As the mobile TV hype continues, one company is positioning itself to cash in on the potential. MobiTV Inc. offers a streaming TV application through a handful of carriers in the United States and Europe, and counts half a million monthly subscribers.
RCR Reporter Dan Meyer contributed to this story.
