• E-mail
• Print
• Comment
• Font Size
• Digg
• del.icio.us
• Discuss article

High-Speed Wireless Data Reaching Cell Phones

Posted on: Monday, 29 August 2005, 15:00 CDT

Veteran research analyst David Chamberlain isn't easily hyped when it comes to new technologies.

But watching television on his mobile phone, a service being launched today in Colorado by Verizon, has him hooked.

Cell phone in hand, Chamberlain walks each morning to his office in Phoenix, watching two-minute clips from "The Daily Show" with Jon Stewart.

When an airplane crashed earlier this month in Toronto, where some of Chamberlain's friends were traveling, he downloaded video updates every hour from MSNBC and watched them on his cell phone.

"It's just like looking at a small TV," said Chamberlain. "I've seen a lot of early technology, but this really amazed me."

Verizon, Sprint and Cingular are all racing to build out their high-speed wireless data networks in Denver and other U.S. cities for transmitting TV and high-speed Internet to cell phones. Verizon launched mobile TV in January in 50 markets, including Phoenix.

Verizon's V Cast service costs $15 per month, with three- dimensional games, NASCAR clips and other premium content costing $1 to $3 per download.

Sprint, which is resold by Qwest, hopes to have the service in Denver by October while Cingular has yet to announce its launch date.

As the mobile phone market in the U.S. becomes saturated, carriers are hoping to boost their bottom line with mobile TV and other data products. Manufacturers like Motorola and Samsung, meanwhile, are responding with cell phones that offer stereo-like sound and lush display panels.

Data, such as text messaging and music downloads, already accounts for 10 percent of Sprint's mobile phone revenue. Chamberlain, an analyst with the In-Stat research firm, estimates mobile TV subscribers in the U.S. will increase from 1.1 million by the end of this year to 30 million in 2010.

But others are skeptical.

"Video on handheld devices has significant hurdles to overcome," wrote Jeffrey Halpern, a Sanford Bernstein analyst, in a recent research note. Those hurdles include billing challenges and the struggle to shrink TV broadcasts to fit on a tiny phone panel.

Mobile TV has spread quickly in Korea and will also be launched in Europe later this year, where analysts expect modest growth. Brad Rees with the London-based Mediacells research firm points to the underwhelming consumer demand for video messaging, which was launched two years ago in Europe. But he also said the number of available color screen cell phones has jumped from 270 in December to over 1,200 now, which may be a promising indicator for mobile TV.

An In-Stat poll of 1,500 consumers in January revealed more interest in mobile TV than in other mobile data products, including gaming or even downloadable music. About 12 percent of those interviewed said they would buy mobile TV, though few were willing to pay above $12.50 per month.

Mobile TV should resonate most with under-30s who already use a wide range of mobile services and are willing to pony up $150 or more for a state-of-the-art handset, experts say.

Sprint and Cingular have yet to announce their pricing.

Apart from providing TV, the technology will noticeably increase the Internet speeds that consumers receive on their cell phones, BlackBerry's and other hand-held devices. Speeds will vary between 300 to 1,700 kilobits per second according to topography and location, which is the same as the low- and mid-level service of high-speed DSL Internet.

As of today, Verizon's mobile TV will be available in the Denver metro area, Fort Collins and Boulder, along with 50 other U.S. cities.

Cell phone users outside those areas will still be able to view a more primitive form of mobile TV, called MobiTV, presently offered by Sprint and Cingular. On most phones, it runs at a few frames per second and costs $15 to $25 per month. Verizon's mobile TV, by comparison, runs at 15 frames per second, which approaches the 25 frames per second of cable and satellite TV.

But the main difference between mobile TV offered by Verizon and Sprint is content format.

Verizon consumers browse 300 video clips, which are updated hourly. The clips, which last 2-3 minutes and take about 20 seconds to download, range from CNN Headline News to snippets from Hugh Hefner's "The Girls Next Door" from E! Entertainment Network.

Sprint's offering, meanwhile, includes a range of about 30 live channels and is similar to watching cable or satellite television at home. Sprint will also offer 600 daily video clips, said company spokesman Dave Mellin.

Only time will tell whether downloaded TV "snacks" or live TV is more popular with consumers.

"I don't want a whole meal on my handset," said Chamberlain, who watches his cell phone during commercial breaks in his home TV service. "I would rather have an information snack."

Source: Deseret News (Salt Lake City)

More News in this Category