IPWireless has announced a solution that it claims allows mobile operators to leverage existing unpaired 3G spectrum to capitalise on the demand for mobile TV and other mobile multimedia.
TDtv combines IPWireless’ commercial UMTS TD-CDMA solution and the recently-defined 3GPP Release 6 Multimedia Broadcast and Multicast Standard (MBMS) and operates in the unpaired 3G spectrum bands that are available across Europe and Asia at 1900MHz and 2010MHz.
IPWireless said that operators globally have already committed to pilot the TDtv solution in the first half of 2006.
“Several operators in Europe are expected to announce TDtv trials in their 1900MHz unpaired 3G spectrum during the first half of this year,” a company statement said.
In Japan, IPMobile plans to trial the technology for their services in their recently awarded 2010MHz spectrum. The solution will also be made available to operators in the other frequency bands that IPWireless supports globally, including the 2.5GHz band.
With TDtv, UMTS operators can deliver up to 50 channels of TV for standard mobile phone screens, or 15 higher quality QVGA channels, all in their existing 5MHz of unpaired 3G spectrum.
“Most discussion of mobile broadcasting technology has revolved around broadcast networks, such as DVB-H, DMB and MediaFLO. However, these have a number of disadvantages for mobile operators, including lack of licensed spectrum, the massive cost of building a new network and a potential loss of control of mobile TV services to broadcasters,” said Alastair Brydon, chief executive officer, Sound Partners, an analyst of emerging technologies.
On the device side, IPWireless is partnering to integrate TDtv into existing WCDMA devices at very low cost. Initial two-chip TD-CDMA/WCMDA handsets or larger screen devices will be able to reuse much of the WCDMA RF. Ultimately, TDtv could be integrated into WCDMA chipsets.