[Ben]

Mobile TV is going to happen, and it looks like we're going to get a taste of it from next week on Orange.

Orange are, for now, going to stream TV content over their 3G network, with an overhead of about 50mb per user per hour. Streaming video over the 3G network has the advantage of not requiring additional infrastructure construction and not requiring additional hardware on the handset. The disadvantage is that each user needs to be served individually, so in peak times the strain placed on the network could be enormous.

DVB-H, on the other hand, provides one-to-many TV content on mobile phones by broadcasting a separate TV signal just like we pick up on our TV's at home. The advantage of DVB-H is that it's massively more efficient when serving large numbers of people. The disadvantage is that handsets need extra hardware, and a whole new network of transmitters need to be constructed to deliver the signal.

The streaming cost from Orange is going to be £10 a month for 20 hours of viewing. The cost for delivering over DVB-H would probably be less.

Is the Orange way of doing mobile TV going to appeal to you? What's the right price for mobile TV? Do you think 3G or DVB-H is the best way of delivering streamed video content to mobiles?

[Ben]

Ok - for a start, Orange's way of doing this does appeal to me.

£10 a month for a gig of transfer seems fine to me. It's about 1p per megabyte, so I'd imagine this data will be routed *very* low priority! The price of watching the content would work out at under a penny a minute, which again seems fair for consuming a service that actively generates a strain on the network.

I'm a staunch believer in delivering TV over data networks anyway, regardless of it's inefficiencies, and I think 3GTV will help the networks improve their infrastructure by generating a decent load and drive 3G takeup. Handsets with DVB-H receivers are just going to be even bigger, heavier and more power hungry than we're struggling with already.

[Sped]

Mmmm i dont know??? Be good when ya on ya hols...but trying to find time to watch anything over here is bad enough.. I'd leave things like that for trips and long drives.. Ive a Motorola MPX200 (smartphone) and ive put dvd's on a 1gb card and not watched em yet..havent time. Ben can you tell me if ya can put mpeg files on the 6680. Id love to transfer these over when i get mine... The Motorola just asnt been a good phone at all....If ya not in the pc know how then your buggered.

[Ben]

Hey - I'm not one for putting films on my phone, but if you could fire me an example of something over to [email protected] then I'll gladly give it a try!

[BrouZe]

What phone are you sporting now Ben. Tell me in a pm and leave your msn in the pm also and I'll send you the..... well I tell you in the pm ;)