UK turns to TDD for Mobile TV

Rating: Good use for unused spectrum

Social networking and mobile advertising are this year’s themes at MWC, Barcelona. Mobile TV is decidedly passee. Yet two British based operators – Orange and T-Mobile – have just agreed to a new mobile TV pilot in West London.
Significantly, they’ve picked technology based around the unpaired (TDD) 3G frequencises which most operators possess but have do virtually nothing with so far.

The company which is most delighted by this turn of events is Nextwave which is set to supply the necessary hardware infrastructure for this six month pilot.
It has also revealed that trialists will be utilising combined 3G and Tdtv (as Netwave calls it) mobile handsets but sadly didn’t mention who will supply such units.
The intention is to offer as many as 24 TV channels and 10 digital radio stations but, again, it is unclear at this stage whether the infamous Beeb can be coerced into participating.
Given the right pricing packages for UK subscribers, I personally think that mobile TV definitely has a future.

Related News:

1. India’s Silicon Valley turns to mobile operators to ease traffic
2. Mobisoc wants to be the new mobile Java with Mitr
3. Orange turns up music services with Radio FG
4. Nokia turns to Chinese search engine Cgogo
5. Simyo in Germany turns three years old –launches 3 EUR starter-set, reduces device prices by 20%