O2 trial reveals public is keen on mobile TV

O2 trial reveals public is keen on mobile TV

	Published : Wed, 18 Jan 2006 17:05 By : Amy Watts Print this Story

LONDON: O2 Plc., which had undertaken a customer trial of mobile TV, says early feedback indicated strong demand for the service. The service provider, which is set to be acquired by Spain's Telefonica later in January, had started the trials using the DVB-H technology in Oxford last September tying up with Australian bank Macquarie-owned Arqiva, which manages Britain's main broadcasting transmission networks.

O2 said as much as 76 per cent of the total 375 participants in the trial wanted the service to be on and they were ready to enlist within a year, while 83 per cent of participants were satisfied with the service and watched TV programmes on mobile phones on an average three hours a week. O2 provided round-the-clock live access to 16 television channels to the participants.

O2 and Arqiva say there is a demand for such a service and hoped Ofcom will release the required UHF spectrum for the service at an early date.

However, it is learnt that the regulator is not keen on such a service at this stage as the country is set for a complete switchover to digital transmission by 2012.

The DVB-H technology, which O2 and Arqiva had used, bypasses mobile networks and broadcasts programmes directly to handsets from TV masts.

There are mobile operators like Hutchison Whampoa's 3, Orange and Vodafone Group, which provide TV programmes as streamed content into 3G networks. The service has, however, limitations.

BT Group and Virgin Mobile had done a trial using the digital audio broadcast (DAB) technology. They revealed that two-thirds of 1,000 users would be prepared to pay up to 8 pounds a month to view live programmes on mobile phones.

O2 claims the DVB-H technology is superior and is used by more operators globally. It can thus bring in economies of scale. Nokia has announced that it will soon introduce DVB-H-enabled handsets in Europe.

The O2-Arqiva study brought out some related aspects too. It found that home was the preferred place to watch mobile television, with 36 per cent opting for this, compared with 23 per cent at work or university, 21 per cent on the bus and 7 per cent in the car. News, soap operas, music, documentaries and sport were the popular programmes.