Clash of competing mobile TV technologies
24-07-2010
3G/4G isn't the only game in town: mobile TV broadcast is attracting top telcos and governments
Mobile TV is seeing a clash of competing technologies, with broadcast-based approaches clashing with the streaming-over-3g/4g network approach.
Integrated Mobile Broadcast (IMB) adopts the network approach. This platform, defined in the 3GPP release 8 standards, has been endorsed by the GSM Association as its favored method for mobile broadcast. Because it runs in the TDD portion of the 3G bands that most carriers own but hardly use, it is seen as a cost-effective choice and also supports offload of broadcast traffic from the more crowded FDD channels.
Several telcos are collaborating on several commercial and technical IMB pilots. Vodafone,O2 and Orange, for instance, are conducting joint trials of IMB in U.K. They say that globally telcos are looking at various ways to offload traffic from their main network, to better cope with the growing amount of data traffic, and IMB can help them with that
Arrayed against the network approach is the broadcast approach. Followers of this approach say even 4G would be too costly an option for mobile TV, which requires huge amounts of bandwidth for long periods. Only the broadcasting approach could well succeed. Both the prospective Japanese telco licencees are following this approach. Plans for Japan's next mobile TV offering are moving forward, with KDDI Corp and NTT DoCoMo having concluded their presentations to the government for the available licence. KDDI is planning a services based on Qualcomm's FLO TV, while NTT DOCoMo wants to use the Japanese broadcast-oriented standard ISDB-Tmm (terrestrial mobile multimedia).
Qualcomm's FLO TV has been around for quite some time. Any FLO TV-enabled device (including Qualcomm phone models on the Verizon and AT&T networks as well as the dedicated Personal Television) can pull the TV programming in over the air from Qualcomm's digital broadcast network. They don't, therefore, need to have a specific dedicated video stream sent from one place on a network to another. It is a one-to-many technology, not one-to-one. Qualcomm says that's the problem with current video services that are sent over cell phone networks. When the connections have to be made on a one-to-one basis, it's easy to overwhelm the networks. That's because video often consumer about 100 times more data networking bandwidth than a simple phone call.
On average, viewers watch FLO TV for 30 minutes a day while commuting, sitting at their desks, or waiting in line. The service is available in more than 100 U.S. cities now. Qualcomm offers both the hardware infrastructure and the mobile digital TV service as well. In the U.S., Qualcomm actually operates the FLO TV service. But others could license the technology and offer their own services in a variety of countries around the world, as Qualcomm brings up the infrastructure.
Qualcomm's competitive advantage is in chip design, not telco services, especially cable services which requires collaboration with content and media companies. Not surprisingly, Qualcomm's FLO services have not grown fast enough, and the company's CEO Paul Jacobs told analysts Qualcomm was now "considering alternatives" for FLO, citing discussions with a number of unnamed partners.
In Europe, Alcatel-Lucent has participated in mobile TV network trials that combine satellite, TV and mobile technologies. This network is currently on pilot in France, allowing TV transmission to be sent at real-time satellite speeds to mobile devices ? far faster than current 3G data services could possibly provide.
Solaris Mobile is providing the satellite end of the network, with TowerCast providing antenna sites all over Paris. And Alcatel-Lucent is the glue holding the hybrid together, providing the transmission equipment that allows the different components to communicate. The signals are broadcast in a frequency that can transmit alongside 3G services without taking up any of its network capacity.
While broadcast-based mobile TV uses an approach similar to current TV industry approaches, they bypass the existing mobile networks, and so have problems to be overcome. The necessary receivers need to be placed in devices by manufacturers, and since this system pretty much cuts the telcos out of the picture, they will oppose it.
Mobile TV is seeing a clash of competing technologies, with broadcast-based approaches clashing with the streaming-over-3g/4g network approach.
Integrated Mobile Broadcast (IMB) adopts the network approach. This platform, defined in the 3GPP release 8 standards, has been endorsed by the GSM Association as its favored method for mobile broadcast. Because it runs in the TDD portion of the 3G bands that most carriers own but hardly use, it is seen as a cost-effective choice and also supports offload of broadcast traffic from the more crowded FDD channels.
Several telcos are collaborating on several commercial and technical IMB pilots. Vodafone,O2 and Orange, for instance, are conducting joint trials of IMB in U.K. They say that globally telcos are looking at various ways to offload traffic from their main network, to better cope with the growing amount of data traffic, and IMB can help them with that
Arrayed against the network approach is the broadcast approach. Followers of this approach say even 4G would be too costly an option for mobile TV, which requires huge amounts of bandwidth for long periods. Only the broadcasting approach could well succeed. Both the prospective Japanese telco licencees are following this approach. Plans for Japan's next mobile TV offering are moving forward, with KDDI Corp and NTT DoCoMo having concluded their presentations to the government for the available licence. KDDI is planning a services based on Qualcomm's FLO TV, while NTT DOCoMo wants to use the Japanese broadcast-oriented standard ISDB-Tmm (terrestrial mobile multimedia).
Qualcomm's FLO TV has been around for quite some time. Any FLO TV-enabled device (including Qualcomm phone models on the Verizon and AT&T networks as well as the dedicated Personal Television) can pull the TV programming in over the air from Qualcomm's digital broadcast network. They don't, therefore, need to have a specific dedicated video stream sent from one place on a network to another. It is a one-to-many technology, not one-to-one. Qualcomm says that's the problem with current video services that are sent over cell phone networks. When the connections have to be made on a one-to-one basis, it's easy to overwhelm the networks. That's because video often consumer about 100 times more data networking bandwidth than a simple phone call.
On average, viewers watch FLO TV for 30 minutes a day while commuting, sitting at their desks, or waiting in line. The service is available in more than 100 U.S. cities now. Qualcomm offers both the hardware infrastructure and the mobile digital TV service as well. In the U.S., Qualcomm actually operates the FLO TV service. But others could license the technology and offer their own services in a variety of countries around the world, as Qualcomm brings up the infrastructure.
Qualcomm's competitive advantage is in chip design, not telco services, especially cable services which requires collaboration with content and media companies. Not surprisingly, Qualcomm's FLO services have not grown fast enough, and the company's CEO Paul Jacobs told analysts Qualcomm was now "considering alternatives" for FLO, citing discussions with a number of unnamed partners.
In Europe, Alcatel-Lucent has participated in mobile TV network trials that combine satellite, TV and mobile technologies. This network is currently on pilot in France, allowing TV transmission to be sent at real-time satellite speeds to mobile devices ? far faster than current 3G data services could possibly provide.
Solaris Mobile is providing the satellite end of the network, with TowerCast providing antenna sites all over Paris. And Alcatel-Lucent is the glue holding the hybrid together, providing the transmission equipment that allows the different components to communicate. The signals are broadcast in a frequency that can transmit alongside 3G services without taking up any of its network capacity.
While broadcast-based mobile TV uses an approach similar to current TV industry approaches, they bypass the existing mobile networks, and so have problems to be overcome. The necessary receivers need to be placed in devices by manufacturers, and since this system pretty much cuts the telcos out of the picture, they will oppose it.
