Swisscom has launched its mobile television service, Bluewin TV mobile, in Switzerland to become one of the first European providers to offer high-quality television experience to its mobile customers.
Bluewin TV mobile was launched with quality said to be comparable to that of the customers' home TV. The service is made available through a network based on the Digital Video Broadcast for Handheld (DVB-H) standard and can be watched on DVB-H-enabled mobile devices. Swisscom provides its customers with a range of subscription plans and Nokia N77 devices.
For the project, Swisscom's wholly-owned subsidiary, Swisscom Broadcast chose Nokia's Mobile Broadcast Solution, while Nokia Siemens Networks integrated the mobile television platform with Swisscom's systems and provided a broad range of services, including project management, network and architecture planning, security and implementation.
"With the time constraints of the project, it was essential for Swisscom Broadcast to rely on one partner offering a solution based on open standards which can guarantee the end-to-end interoperability of the whole solution, from the DVB-H back-end system to the mobile devices" says Olivier Anthamatten, Head of Strategic Projects at Swisscom Broadcast.
With Bluewin TV mobile, featuring high-definition picture quality and excellent sound, the viewers have a choice of 20 channels, including SF1, TSR1 and Eurosport. An electronic program guide and an easy navigation key allow people on the move to always stay on top of the news.
Swisscom is one of the first DVB-H service providers in Europe and worldwide. Bluewin TV mobile marks a further step in the Group's multimedia strategy and offers customers on the move the same viewing experience as with their TV at home.
Swisscom's DVB-H broadcasts reach some 44 percent of the Swiss population, mostly in the area of Basel, Berne, Geneva, Zurich and Lausanne. Customers outside the DVB-H coverage area or without DVB-H handsets can receive Bluewin TV mobile on the Vodafone live! portal using UMTS/EDGE, which covers 99.8 percent of the population.
The solutions offered by Nokia and Nokia Siemens Networks are based on the open DVB-H standard. They allow short implementation time as well as end-to-end capability, combining the equipment, services and devices to create a unique solution for mobile TV service providers, covering both mobile TV broadcast and 3G streaming (unicast).