“We believe the road is clear for IMB now “
Two years after T-Mobile and Orange ran a trial of IPWireless’ TDTV technology, and three and a half years after four operators first tried out the technology, three operators have returned to the theme.
This time the multi-operator pilot, which will run for three months commencing in October 2010 in central London and Slough, will assess how mobile broadcast services can be deployed using shared network infrastructure.
Integrated Mobile Broadcast (IMB) is a 3GPP technology recently endorsed by the GSM Association. As well as offering broadcast services to customers, it can link with traditional unicast or on-demand services delivered over 3G.
The mobile operators are trailing the IMB wireless technology within unused Time Division Duplex (TDD) spectrum that they already own.
The pilot is intended to demonstrate the capabilities of IMB in delivering both live streaming video and offloading traffic from existing 3G networks by broadcasting and storing popular content on mobile devices.
Although, as the links in our first paragraph show, the industry has been round this way before, there is a feeling that the 3GPP standardisation and GSMA endorsement, along with market demands, might mean that this time the trial will go somewhere.
“With the strong growth of data traffic on our 3G networks and the mobile industry’s recent support of this high performance broadcast technology, the time is right to move forward with an IMB initiative,” said Luke Ibbetson, Head of Technology R&D at Vodafone Group. “By joining our peers in this UK Pilot, we expect to be able to explore the potential of delivering broadcast services across available 3G spectrum.”
“Already a leading provider of mobile TV in Europe, our experience shows consumers will take advantage of linear broadcast services if the network experience is consistently good,” said Thierry Bonhomme, EVP in charge of Networks, Carriers and R&D at Orange. “Network capability is key for mobile TV roll-out and IMB will enable more operators to maximize the benefits they get from 3G investments with high quality TV service deployments on an efficient, pragmatic and scalable solution that works from country to country.”
“We believe the road is clear for IMB now that it has been endorsed by the GSMA and supported by the wider mobile ecosystem,” said Gavin Franks, Head of New Business Development at O2. “Based on the results of the pilot, we anticipate being able to offer our consumers through our networks a range of innovative new broadcast services such as mobile TV and intelligent broadcasting that will lead to an enhanced user experience.”
IPWireless and Ericsson are the technology providers for the UK pilot. IPWireless will supply the core 3GPP broadcast technology that will explore the performance of the TDD spectrum for mobile broadcast services. Ericsson will provide integration services and a media platform. Streamezzo, recently acquired by Amdoc will provide the user interface for the pilot.