Lucky Optus customers trial Mobile TV

By Joseph Hanlon on 23 January 2009

The DVB-H compatible Nokia N96
(Credit: Nokia)

Mobile TV in Australia is a step closer to fruition with a live trial beginning in Sydney.

The trial is being conducted by Australian Digital Suppliers Industry Forum (ADSIF), a group including Optus, Nokia, LG and Broadcast Australia. A select group of lucky Optus customers will help conduct the trials, watching broadcasts from the Seven Network, ABC, SBS, Fox Sports, CNN and MTV.

ADSIF will be testing broadcasts using DVB-H, which to date is the most widely used broadcast standard for mobile handsets in parts of Europe and Asia. To broadcast using DVB-H content, suppliers are waiting for the Australian Government to allocate bandwidth on the 7MHz spectrum. ADSIF hopes a successful trial of this service will demonstrate the advantages of this service to the government.

DVB-H broadcasts are delivered to handsets the same way as traditional television broadcasts are delivered to TVs. This system does not rely on data transmission over the existing mobile networks and therefore has superior capacity, allowing more people to watch the same broadcast simultaneously.

For more detailed information about Mobile TV check out our recent feature.

Topics: lg, mobile phone, mobile tv, nokia, optus, broadcast, optu, dvb, trial, australia

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Comments (3)

  • mountainash commented on 28/01/2009 07:31 Report abuse

    So if this does not use the carriers data, what does Optus have to do with it? Couldn't anyone with a capable handset access the free-to-air stream?

  • Rolloxan commented on 24/01/2009 08:29 Report abuse

    no, the primary difference is the change in the spectrum used to relay the content. so instead of paying for each byte you receive over the carriers network (i.e. incurring data usage) you receive a truly 'digital' broadcast.

  • FlamingCowboy commented on 23/01/2009 19:49 Report abuse

    Um guys, mobile TV has been out for at least three whole years now!

    Sure, the majority of "mobile TV" is looped content, but most carriers have provided "real" mobile TV at least a handful of times (eg. the cricket on "3" and other sporting events on various carriers, etc...), and most have at least one "real" mobile TV channel available (Sky News Now on most carriers, the Country Music Channel on Telstra's NextG, SBS on "3", ABC on others...).

    The only way this appears to be different to current offerings is that it will provide "real" TV all the time, instead of every now and then and/or on specific channels...

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