Satellite operator Eutelsat Communications will include a transmitter capable of delivering television services to mobile phones on a satellite due for launch in 2009. Eutelsat will form a joint venture with another satellite operator, SES Global SA of Luxembourg, to sell services over the transmitter, the companies said Monday.
French telecommunications equipment manufacturer Alcatel SA will add the transmitter to the W2A satellite it is building for Eutelsat, it said.
Alcatel also announced a partnership with mobile phone manufacturer Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. to co-develop mobile phones capable of receiving the signals, which will be broadcast using DVB-H (Digital Video Broadcast-Handheld) technology in the so-called S-Band frequency range. DVB-H was originally developed to reuse the signals vacated by terrestrial analog television signals, but broadcasters are taking longer to switch to digital transmission than expected.
S-band frequencies are available across Europe. The W2A satellite could use 15MHz of that spectrum to broadcast different programs to each country in Europe, delivering nine channels to each, said Olivier Coste, president of Alcatel’s mobile broadcast activities. In addition, mobile network operators can deliver up to 45 channels in urban areas over a complementary terrestrial network using the same frequencies. This combination of satellite and terrestrial networks gives broad coverage in rural areas, and stronger signals inside city buildings, he said.
Coste expects mobile network operators to begin deploying the terrestrial services from the end of 2007, or early 2008. When the W2A satellite is launched in 2009, it will enhance coverage in the rural areas, he said.
Mobile television equipment manufacturers are battling it out to see whose technology wins the most supporters.
Swisscom AG announced on Friday that it has begun a three-month trial of DVB-H in its terrestrial network in Switzerland. European operators elsewhere are testing other technologies including TDtv and DMB, while Coste sees DVB-H’s main rivals as TDM-B and Mediaflo.
That’s too many mobile television technologies, according to Ovum Ltd. analyst Vincent Poulbere. The market for services will fragment unless operators can agree on one, he said at a briefing on mobile television services last week.
With so many technologies competing for attention, “The business case is relatively difficult. You need economies of scale,” he said.
