Barcelona, Spain
Orange and T-Mobile UK today announced they intend to jointly pilot a new mobile TV and multimedia broadcast service in London using NextWave Wireless' (Nasdaq - WAVE) UMTS MBMS based TDtv solution. The pilot, scheduled for the second half of 2008, will be targeted at people living or working in West London and will demonstrate how the cost of providing high-quality, mass market mobile TV and multimedia broadcast services can be significantly reduced when mobile operators share widely-available unpaired 3G spectrum and a standards-based TDtv broadcast network. It will also showcase an innovative consortium model that can be easily replicated by mobile operators in more than 50 other countries where unpaired 3G spectrum is available.
During the six-month pilot Orange and T-Mobile UK customers will use TDtv-enabled WCDMA handsets to receive up to 24 high-resolution television channels along with 10 digital radio stations at a far lower delivery cost per channel than previously possible. By providing more channels with higher picture quality that are fully integrated with existing multimedia services, the pilot service is expected to conclusively prove customer demand for mobile broadcast TV and radio services. The channel lineup is expected to include many of the most popular broadcast and premium television channels in the UK.
Mobile network operators in Europe and the Asia Pacific who also own unpaired UMTS spectrum will be invited to participate in the pilot as observers. In addition, leading handset manufacturers who can make TDtv a standard feature in their devices will also be invited to observe the pilot. During the pilot, the companies intend to show that when mobile network operators, content providers and technology companies work together with MBMS technology, mobile TV costs can be significantly reduced.
Paul Jevons, Product and Innovation Director, Orange said: "Orange was the first UK network operator to introduce a mobile TV service in May 2005, and is continually looking for unique insights and innovative content to ensure that Orange Mobile TV continues to grow and develop in a way that offers the best available standard of service for our customers. The results from the technical trial of TDtv in Bristol last year were extremely encouraging, and this joint pilot of the service in London is an excellent opportunity for us to properly explore the great potential available to our customers from the technology.
Orange Mobile TV already offers a broad range of content including the major terrestrial channels BBC, ITV, Channel 4 and Channel 5, as well as Sky and most recently Setanta allowing Orange mobile TV customers to see live coverage of every televised match from the Barclays Premier League."
T-Mobile UK Technical Director, Emin Gurdenli, said, "We are committed to widening the appeal of our Mobile TV offering, from the point of view content and user experience. Last year, we revamped our offering with the addition of three Sky Mobile TV packages and eight BBC TV and radio channels to provide customers with more choice. On a technical level, our involvement with this TDtv pilot is intended to raise awareness of the potential of broadcast mobile TV and help stimulate the development of an industry-wide ecosystem in which operators, handset manufacturers and content providers collaborate to realize a robust commercial proposition. TDtv uses part of the licensed 3G spectrum which is unused at the moment and is a technology that can scale to support high simultaneous usage levels without any degradation in quality. This solution would be ideal for broadcasting live, large sporting events such as the 2012 Olympic Games to high population densities."
The pilot will be powered by an end-to-end mobile broadcast solution developed by NextWave Wireless that will include TDtv network infrastructure based on the 3GPP UMTS TDD MBMS standard. NextWave will also provide a TDtv Device Integration Pack, a complete chipset and software package that enables handset vendors to quickly add TDtv to any multimedia enabled WCDMA handset. In addition, NextWave's Packet Video (PV) subsidiary will provide a complete Electronics Programming Guide that will integrate the TDtv service with the operators' existing 3G services. PacketVideo will also provide the pilot its new MediaFusion(TM) platform, a white-label, client-server software application that allows mobile operators to rapidly develop and launch on-device portals for rich media services, including music-on-demand, personalized streaming radio, live TV, and video-on-demand.
"We are rapidly moving into a new and exciting wireless era, the era of mobile multimedia where your favourite movies, television shows, and music will be accessible everywhere you go, in the palm of your hand. It's why we developed our innovative TDtv mobile broadcast solution," said Allen Salmasi, CEO of NextWave Wireless. "We believe today's announcement of a joint TDtv initiative by two of the world's largest mobile network operators represents an important milestone in the evolution of mobile multimedia and will clearly demonstrate the compelling economics of marrying our innovative TDtv technology with underutilized 3G spectrum to deliver high-quality mobile television services to the mass market."
For more information:
Dr. Bill Jones, CEO of NextWave Network Products and Marc Fossier, CTO of France Telecom, will deliver the opening presentation of the Mobile TV track - "Mobile TV - Technology Debate: Delivering Mobile TV Over 3G with MBMS." The session will be held on Tuesday, February 12th, from 11:40 - 13:10 at the GSM/Mobile World Congress.
About TDtv
TDtv is a 3GPP MBMS solution that provides mobile operators an opportunity to profitably deliver multiple, high-resolution TV channels, digital audio, or other IP data-cast services to an unlimited number of concurrent customers. In 2007, Vodafone, Telefonica, Orange, 3UK, and IPWireless announced successful results from a joint technical trial of TDtv in Bristol. The trial demonstrated TDtv's ability to reliably deliver a large number of high-quality channels in 5 MHz of TDD spectrum with coverage comparable to WCDMA, but with far fewer cell sites. The trial also demonstrated the viability of dual-mode TDtv/WCDMA handsets as well as the ability of the technology to support full mobility at vehicular speeds. IPWireless was acquired by NextWave Wireless in May, 2007 and now operates as part of NextWave Wireless.
TDtv operates in the universal unpaired (TDD) 3G spectrum bands that are available across Europe and Asia at 1900 MHz and 2010 MHz. It enables UMTS operators to utilize their existing TDD spectrum to offer subscribers attractive mobile TV and multimedia packages without impacting their 3G voice and data services which use universal paired (FDD) 3G spectrum. In addition, the technology supports network sharing to further reduce deployment and operational costs.
About Orange
Orange is a key brand of the France Telecom Group, providing mobile, broadband, fixed, business and entertainment services across Europe. It is one of the world's leading telecommunications operators with more than 163 million customers on five continents.
In June, 2006, Orange became the single brand for mobile, broadband and multi-play offers. In addition, Orange Business Services became the new banner for business communications solutions. Orange Business Services is present in 166 countries with network reach in 220.
In the UK, Orange provides high quality GSM coverage to 99% of the UK population. At the end of December 2007, Orange had over 16.8 million customers in the UK - 15.6 million active mobile customers and nearly 1.14 million broadband customers.
Orange and any other Orange product or service names included in this material are trade marks of Orange Personal Communications Services Limited.
Further information about Orange and France Telecom can be found on the Orange website at www.orange.co.uk or the France Telecom website at www.francetelecom.com
For further information, call the Orange press office on 0870 373 1500 or email: Orangepr@golinharris.com.
About T-Mobile UK
T-Mobile is one of the world's largest mobile operators with more than 119 million customers worldwide and in the UK it is the network of choice for 17.3 million customers, making it one of the largest networks. T-Mobile has a range of innovative products and services such as Flext, a unique tariff with flexible pricing; U-Fix, a tariff that combines pay-as-you-go and a monthly contract and web'n'walk, which enables customers to surf websites on the move. T-Mobile's network coverage is among the best in the UK (over 99 per cent of the UK population) with one of the lowest dropped call rates. It offers the largest worldwide Wi-Fi network, with more than 1,000 HotSpots in business-friendly locations in the UK and 21,000 worldwide, and offers the fastest HSDPA network across the UK with speeds of up to 1.8mb per second.
For more information about T-Mobile UK, please visit www.t-mobile.co.uk
About NextWave Wireless
NextWave Wireless Inc., (Nasdaq: WAVE) provides the software, systems, and silicon solutions that enable cutting-edge mobile broadcast and multimedia services. The company's products and technologies include an innovative UMTS based TDtv mobile broadcast solution developed by its IPWireless subsidiary, a family of high-performance WiMAX semiconductors, end-to-end mobile broadband systems, and device-embedded mobile multimedia software developed by its PacketVideo subsidiary that can be found in over 200 million handsets around the globe. NextWave's customers include many of the largest mobile handset manufacturers, network equipment suppliers, and wireless service providers in the world. Visit NextWave at www.nextwave.com.
Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements
This press release contains "forward-looking statements" for purposes of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 that involve risks and uncertainties. There can be no assurances that forward-looking statements will be achieved, and actual events or results could differ materially from the events or results predicted by such statements. Important factors that could cause actual events or results to differ materially are discussed in greater detail in the filings of NextWave with the Securities and Exchange Commission. All such documents are available through the SEC's website at www.sec.gov. NextWave makes no commitment to update any forward-looking statements in order to reflect subsequent changes in events or circumstances except as may be required pursuant to applicable law.
Source: Business Wire (Business Wire India)