Pricey phones seen holding back mobile TV

The mobile phone industry has been predicting for years that the future of television is wireless.

But with cellphones with 2.5-inch screens costing as much as 32-inch TV sets, mobile TV has so far failed to take off.

This will be one of the main topics at the 3GSM mobile communications trade fair in Barcelona, starting on Monday, where handset makers are set to introduce cheaper models of phones for watching television.

"There is no doubt; adoption is going to take some time," said Texas Instrument's Yoram Solomon, who is also president of industry lobby Mobile DTV Alliance.

Per Nordlof, director for mobile television at Swedish network gear maker Ericsson agreed: "It will be very very little broadcast this year."

Researchers at Strategy Analytics expect 20 million handsets for receiving television will be sold this year, about 2 percent of the total mobile phone market by volume.

Cellphone makers and operators alike are keen to tap the potentially lucrative market in phones that receive television.

Operators hope additional income from mobile TV services, which may generate another five to 10 euros of revenues a month from each user, would help compensate for declining revenues from voice telephony due to fierce competition and new regulations.

However, so far only a few countries have a dedicated spectrum for a mobile TV network.

Most people who already watch television on their cellphones use operators' faster third-generation (3G) mobile networks -- bringing in long-awaited data transmission fees to operators -- but this caps the quality of the picture and maximum amount of users.

"In the 3G, television has become one of the key services, but the capacity there will be full at one point," said Harri Mannisto, director at multimedia unit of the world's top handset maker
Nokia.

Lack of capacity would force mobile operators to build separate networks for broadcasting television to phones, just like over-the-air television.

CHEAPER PHONES NEEDED

The price of cellphones capable of receiving television is well over 500 euros, limiting interest from consumers and operators alike. But handset makers are set to introduce cheaper models at the 3GSM trade fair.

"It is critical for the broadcast for it to go to (the) masses. A feature which depends on infrastructure is better to go wider as no one will build (a) network for only high end," said TI's Solomon, adding that the chip maker is also targeting midrange phones.

Industry players said they expect chips that enable phones to receive TV will spread to a very wide range of models, similar to the take-up of camera phones.

Nokia is set to unveil its first mid-priced mobile TV phone at the trade show, sources close to the company told Reuters.

Finland's Nokia and many other European industry players favor the homegrown DVB-H digital TV broadcast standard for their mobile phones, but competing technologies, including DMB and MediaFlo, have gained ground over recent months due to slow rollout of DVB-H networks.

The first commercial DVB-H network in Italy attracted 4 percent of the country's total mobile subscribers in a short period of time. But the next two, in Vietnam and Finland, have had a more difficult start.

Vietnam Multimedia Corp's TV service has so far not taken off due to the high price of the phones, said phone dealers in Hanoi.

Meanwhile in Finland, Digita, a unit of France's TDF, has opened a DVB-H network, but there are no television broadcasters delivering pictures due to a copyright row.

The next commercial DVB-H network is due to be opened shortly in Albania.

(Additional reporting by Nguyen Nhat Lam in Vietnam and Benet Koleka in Tirana)

source news : news.yahoo.com