Virgin TV on the way....

[3GScottishUser]

Fom Total Mobile (02/06/2005):

Vrigin Mobile TV on mobiles ready to go

Virgin Mobile has become the latest network to switch on to the concept of mobile TV with the announcement that BT Livetime is to launch a four-month pilot mobile TV service for 1000 Virgin Mobile customers inside the M25 area beginning this month.

The service, which will deliver broadcasts of Sky Sports News, Sky News and music channel Blaze plus more than 50 digital radio channels and an Electronic Programme Guide (EPG), will use DAB digital radio technology to transmit the channels. Windows Mobile-based Smartphones from HTC, with an integrated chip built into an extended battery pack, will be used to receive the trial service.

The service will offer live digital TV 24 hours a day, with the EPG allowing users to see what’s coming and set alerts in advance to watch programmes. The service from BT Livetime is complementary to existing mobile networks, working alongside GSM/GPRS and 3G services, while standalone media players as well as mobile phones could also use interactive mobile TV services.

Graeme Hutchinson, sales and marketing director of Virgin Mobile, described the service as ‘undoubtedly the most exciting mobile television service in the industry’.

‘No one else offers the ability to receive live television on your mobile, an electronic programme guide, or the ability to use the service anywhere,’ he said. ‘This mobile television service is revolutionary, yet it uses an existing technology which can be used right here, and right now, unlike some other forthcoming mobile TV offerings. We think the service is going to change forever the way people use their mobile phones, and we know our customers are going to love it!’

No timescale has yet been set for a commercial roll-out of a DAB mobile TV on Virgin Mobile, with a spokesperson saying that this would be looked at after the pilot had been completed.

Lining up alongside BT Livetime and Virgin Mobile a project partners are Microsoft, Sky, Arqiva (formerly NTL Broadcast), HTC, GCap Media and its subsidiary Digital One.

http://www.what-cellphone.com/cgi-bi...ws.php?id=8082

(Interesting hybrid product/solution).

[Jon3G]

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/06...gin_tv_trials/

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