Coming soon to a cell phone near you: Live TV
By Ben Charny, ZDNet News
Thursday May 03 04:15 PM EDT
Three European telephone service providers are testing a way to stream live TV events including horse races
and financial news updates to cell phones.
Three European telephone service providers are testing a way to stream live TV events including horse races
and financial news updates to cell phones. The companies may debut the service on the tiny screen by year's
end, one of the service providers involved said Thursday.
The hardware technology at the heart of the effort comes from Celvibe, an Israeli company that recently has
been on a venture capital winning streak that netted the 50-employee start-up a total of $12 million.
Streaming video to handsets is among the applications being proposed for the next generation, or so-called
"3G," phone systems that telecommunications carriers throughout the world are in the midst of launching.
These new systems will allow cell phones to have Internet access at broadband speeds.
But the 3G marketplace has been rattled as of late. NTT DoCoMo (news - web sites) was supposed to launch
the world's first such 3G network in May. Instead, because of problems with the network, it will wait until
October. Other carriers in Europe and Asia also announced delays.
Some remain optimistic that such sophisticated services can work on a cell phone.
"There is, generally speaking, a potential for this to be a mass market type of product," said Keith Waryas, IDC
research manager for mobile e-business. "It will do quite well, but for the next few years, it will be quite (a
small) niche."
John Marchioni, Celvibe's vice president of business development, refused to identify the carriers testing the
service, but indicated they could include British Telecom, which has more than 5 million customers.Marchioni
said that people "shouldn't be surprised," to see at least oneEuropean telephone service provider offer the
service as soon as the end of this year.
There are other companies developing the same type of technology as Celvibe's, including PacketVideo,
which has received more than $100 million in financing, plus recently won a patent for some of its
hardware.PacketVideo offers video content through a portal. Celvibe is differentbecause it says it can offer a
way to access TV events as they are broadcast.
What is streamed to handhelds is up to the carriers. ButMarchioni thinks one of the first kinds of content that
could be offered are financial market updates, he said. He also envisions thatvideo caught by traffic cameras
posted on freeways and highways could be streamed to devices placed in cars, so drivers could see for
themselvesjust how crowded the streets are.
Streaming video on phones and personal digital assistants continues to meet with mixed reactions from
analysts. They are awed by the technology but say it is a few steps ahead of its time. Celvibe's claim that some
carriers might begin offering the service by year's end still hasn't swayed many analysts.
IDC's Waryas doesn't expect the video itself to be of such high quality. Videoviewed on personal computers
with 56K modems are often blurry, and theaudio doesn't track the video images. Most phone networks are
evenslower, which could cause even more problems, he said.
"Think about 56K connections to computers," Waryas said. "The video isstill choppy on a broadband. Now
imagine doing it on a 14.4K," which isthe typical speed at which data can be sent to a phone.
