dan9999
01-06-2010, 07:29 PM
Is free Over-the-Air mobile TV the next killer app for Smartphones?
Digital Home
January 6, 2010
In North America today, smartphone users can choose from a cornucopia of wireless smartphones which can be used to make phone calls, surf the web, take pictures, record video and send email but how about a smartphone that lets you watch one of the 20th Century’s killer apps – television?
In Canada Rogers, Telus and Bell Mobility have been offering MobiTV, a subscription based service that offers a limited selection of tv channels on selected handsets for several years, but the service is expensive and few Canadians can afford it.
Imagine however, if a single chip and antenna could be added to your next generation smartphone that would enable North American smartphone owners to view free over-the-air analog and digital television signals at no additional cost. Picture yourself watching your local CBC, CTV, Global, ABC, CBS and NBC channels on your smartphone phone without having to pay an extra dime in subscription fees.
It may sound fanciful but the technology that would enable smartphone users to receive free over-the-air (OTA) television and FM signals on their wireless phone is not fantasy. In fact, millions of viewers worldwide watched the 2008 Beijing Olympic coverage with TV handsets that incorporate free-to-air mobile TV technology.
The ability to watch OTA TV on your wireless phone was first made possible thanks to technology developed by a California based company called Telegent Systems. The company, which began in 2004, has been selling a specialized chip since the middle of 2007 that allows wireless handsets and other portable devices to receive analog and digital television OTA signals. The technology is so robust that reception is even possible in car moving 60 miles an hour.
Since that time, other consumer electronics companies have been developing their own Mobile Digital TV chips and today at CES Samsung announced that its Mobile DTV-equipped Samsung Moment was selected for a showcase with Sprint customers in the Washington, D.C. and Baltimore markets during the first quarter of 2010.
Ultimately the “Moment” could become the first mobile phone offered in North America that can receive free OTA digital television signals.
Digital Home
January 6, 2010
In North America today, smartphone users can choose from a cornucopia of wireless smartphones which can be used to make phone calls, surf the web, take pictures, record video and send email but how about a smartphone that lets you watch one of the 20th Century’s killer apps – television?
In Canada Rogers, Telus and Bell Mobility have been offering MobiTV, a subscription based service that offers a limited selection of tv channels on selected handsets for several years, but the service is expensive and few Canadians can afford it.
Imagine however, if a single chip and antenna could be added to your next generation smartphone that would enable North American smartphone owners to view free over-the-air analog and digital television signals at no additional cost. Picture yourself watching your local CBC, CTV, Global, ABC, CBS and NBC channels on your smartphone phone without having to pay an extra dime in subscription fees.
It may sound fanciful but the technology that would enable smartphone users to receive free over-the-air (OTA) television and FM signals on their wireless phone is not fantasy. In fact, millions of viewers worldwide watched the 2008 Beijing Olympic coverage with TV handsets that incorporate free-to-air mobile TV technology.
The ability to watch OTA TV on your wireless phone was first made possible thanks to technology developed by a California based company called Telegent Systems. The company, which began in 2004, has been selling a specialized chip since the middle of 2007 that allows wireless handsets and other portable devices to receive analog and digital television OTA signals. The technology is so robust that reception is even possible in car moving 60 miles an hour.
Since that time, other consumer electronics companies have been developing their own Mobile Digital TV chips and today at CES Samsung announced that its Mobile DTV-equipped Samsung Moment was selected for a showcase with Sprint customers in the Washington, D.C. and Baltimore markets during the first quarter of 2010.
Ultimately the “Moment” could become the first mobile phone offered in North America that can receive free OTA digital television signals.