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Wireless Community Supports DVB-H Open Standard, Encourages Competition and Innovation for Burgeoning Digital TV Market; Crown Castle Mobile Media, DiBcom, Freescale, Intel, Microtune, Nokia, O2, S-Communications, Silicon & Software Systems Ltd (S3), Texas Instruments, TTPCom, and UDcast Publicly Promote and Drive DVB-H to Mobile Phones.

Article Excerpt
LAS VEGAS, April 18 /PRNewswire/ -- A number of players in the wireless industry today announced support for DVB-H (digital video broadcast -- handheld), an open industry standard for the delivery of mobile broadcast digital TV (DTV) for the U.S., European and Asian marketplaces. DVB-H is experiencing broad support across the wireless ecosystem, including partners and competitors alike, who are working together to foster competition and innovation for the growing digital TV market. Such companies include wireless operators such as O2; multicast network operators such as Crown Castle Mobile Media ; wireless infrastructure providers such as UDcast; handset manufacturers such as Nokia ; software stack providers such as Silicon & Software Systems Ltd (S3); and semiconductor providers such as DiBcom, Freescale , Intel , Microtune(R), Inc. , S-Communications, Texas Instruments Incorporated (TI) and TTPCom. Each company listed, plus many others worldwide, is putting support behind DVB-H in efforts to provide an open environment for mobile operators and broadcasters to reach the largely un-tapped but promising digital mobile TV market.

DVB-H is an open, non-proprietary standard that will foster growth throughout the wireless market, allowing mobile DTV handsets and services to reach the mass market faster and at a lower cost to consumers. Additionally, DVB-H delivers an improved end user experience over current video streaming services that utilize cellular networks and reduce network capacity for voice services. Broadcast digital TV for mobile phones is a large opportunity for operators, broadcasters, handset manufacturers and silicon providers as it opens up new opportunities and provides additional users and revenue- generating services for digital TV services.

DVB-H trials are underway in the U.S., Germany, France, UK, Finland, Sweden and other countries, with more trials expected to launch later in 2005 and throughout 2006. Wider roll-out of DVB-H services is expected in 2006 and throughout 2007. In the U.S., DVB-H will be deployed using clear and "ready- for-use" spectrum that is available today, without interfering with existing analog TV stations or other TV or wireless services.

With DVB-H, consumers will be able to watch their favorite TV shows, sporting events, news and programming in real-time using their mobile phone at speeds comparable to watching their TV at home. To support the increasing consumer appetite for mobile TV without sacrificing battery life or voice call availability, DVB-H uses a technology called "time slicing" to enable up to eight...