China Aims For Mobile TV, Not 3G

China’s State Administration of Radio, Film and Television (SARFT) has announced plans for mobile TV to be up and running in the country by mid-2007, a year ahead of the Beijing Olympic games. The service will use DMB technology (which has been accepted for a while), although the article mentions satellites whereas past articles have talked about antennas, so I’m not sure which DMB standard is being used. The trials will start in Beijing, unsurprisingly. The two biggest telcos, China Mobile and China Unicom, are expected to sign agreements to buy TV handsets.
3G vendors are still waiting for China to authorise spectrum for their service, and it could be too late for telcos to roll out a 3G service in time for the Olympics…which won’t be a big issue if there is a mobile TV service up and running.
Some interesting notes from the article:
–”The standard to be adopted is totally indigenous and the country does not have to pay any patent fee to other countries” according to one official, although what that standard could be hasn’t been explained.
–”The mobile-phone TV market in China is estimated to reach 6.05 billion yuan (US$756 million) in 2008, Xinhua New Agency reported.” Around 8% of 426 million Chinese mobile users are expected to subscribe to mobile TV services.
–A mobile TV service started in Shanghai in June, which I think is a trial. The technology used isn’t detailed, but Nokia was planning a DVB-H trial there.
The information coming out of China about which mobile TV standards will be used where, and when, is very confused.
Related stories:
–Nokia Chooses Four Cities For Trial Mobile TV
–