MOBILE TV - PRO'S AND CON'S
Source: News.com
Last week I happened to study an most interesting blog on Mobile TV and its fast growth and demand. But this News.com article, points out the real difficulties in using 3G Mobile Carriers for transmitting TV programs.
TV service on the go is being touted as the next big moneymaker for mobile phone operators--but if too many people tune in, carriers' brand-new third-generation networks could be overwhelmed.According to a recent report from Analysys, an independent research group in the United Kingdom, capacity on a third-generation, or 3G, wireless network could be exceeded as early as 2007 if 40 percent of subscribers view even eight minutes of video per day.watching 10 minutes worth of video per day will have a significant impact on the network. Right now, the 3G networks are empty, so it's not a problem. But if the service proves popular, then it could be a big problem."
Video and TV services for mobile phones are being hyped as major moneymakers for the future. In South Korea when carriers initially rolled out streaming video services there. Within eight to nine months, the network became congested with video traffic. SK Telecom quickly realized that a new approach was necessary. So it built a separate satellite network to broadcast its mobile TV service.
Why can't 3G networks support high volumes of video traffic? 3G wireless networks are divided into cells. Users in a given cell share the available bandwidth. The networks are also designed to be "unicast," which means signals are transmitted between a single sender and a single receiver. If 500 people in the same cell decide to watch the same video clip, the network has to transmit a copy of that video clip over the network to each user.
A more efficient way of delivering mobile TV would be to broadcast the content to users, and allow those who want to view it to tap into the network, he said. This approach, used in traditional broadcast television and radio, means that video clips are transmitted only once over the network, instead of being replicated and transmitted hundreds or even thousands of times.
This new approach of using mobile as a TV may sound innovative, still its con's outweigh the pro's. My take would be deploy something similar to Podcasts, which might prove to be an better alternative, though cannot work in real time.
Category:Mobile
Source: News.com
Last week I happened to study an most interesting blog on Mobile TV and its fast growth and demand. But this News.com article, points out the real difficulties in using 3G Mobile Carriers for transmitting TV programs.
TV service on the go is being touted as the next big moneymaker for mobile phone operators--but if too many people tune in, carriers' brand-new third-generation networks could be overwhelmed.According to a recent report from Analysys, an independent research group in the United Kingdom, capacity on a third-generation, or 3G, wireless network could be exceeded as early as 2007 if 40 percent of subscribers view even eight minutes of video per day.watching 10 minutes worth of video per day will have a significant impact on the network. Right now, the 3G networks are empty, so it's not a problem. But if the service proves popular, then it could be a big problem."
Video and TV services for mobile phones are being hyped as major moneymakers for the future. In South Korea when carriers initially rolled out streaming video services there. Within eight to nine months, the network became congested with video traffic. SK Telecom quickly realized that a new approach was necessary. So it built a separate satellite network to broadcast its mobile TV service.
Why can't 3G networks support high volumes of video traffic? 3G wireless networks are divided into cells. Users in a given cell share the available bandwidth. The networks are also designed to be "unicast," which means signals are transmitted between a single sender and a single receiver. If 500 people in the same cell decide to watch the same video clip, the network has to transmit a copy of that video clip over the network to each user.
A more efficient way of delivering mobile TV would be to broadcast the content to users, and allow those who want to view it to tap into the network, he said. This approach, used in traditional broadcast television and radio, means that video clips are transmitted only once over the network, instead of being replicated and transmitted hundreds or even thousands of times.
This new approach of using mobile as a TV may sound innovative, still its con's outweigh the pro's. My take would be deploy something similar to Podcasts, which might prove to be an better alternative, though cannot work in real time.
Category:Mobile
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