India has joined the select group of countries that are experimenting with live or real live TV on mobile. So far, South Korea is the only country in the world to have launched satellite-based mobile television after it pioneered the mobile TV business by developing special chips that enable mobiles to receive satellite TV signals.

In India, however, the country’s second largest mobile operator Reliance Infocomm has started offering near real-time television by video-streaming the live telecast of two news channels-Aaj Tak and NDTV.

Last August, Finnish Mobile TV project experimented with it by beaming the IAAF World Championships in Athletics in Helsinki, the first international sporting event to be on mobile TV. And in December, Qualcomm and Verizon Wireless announced a pact to bring customers real-time mobile video in the US.

“There are different ways of doing this such as DVBS (Digital Video Broadcast Satellite) and DVBT (Digital Video Broadcast Terrestrial). We are experimenting with different technologies,” said Mahesh Prasad, President, Applications Solutions & Content Group, Reliance Infocomm. The service was started commercially a few months ago and for now can be accessed only on two handsets, Nokia 6225 and Nokia 6235. While both CDMA and GSM operators currently offer news and movie video clips, CDMA technology can offer speeds up to 144 Kbps that allow video streaming for live television. Though there is a lag of 7-13 seconds because the content has to be converted into a mobile-recognisable format that can be streamed.

In South Korea, for instance, operators like Takeout TV and SK Telecom, broadcasts the channels to handsets that are equipped with antennae that can receive the signals. “Current mobile technologies in India do not support live broadcast of channels to the phone. It requires different types of handsets and mobile broadcast technology,” Mr Prasad said. The mobile TV offered by Reliance costs Rs 15 per view, independent of the time spent on the channel. The subscriber can access the channel on his mobile and view it till he decides to end the session. Each session counts as a view. In comparison, video clips from a bouquet of channels (CNBC, Aaj Tak, NDTV, IndiaTV) are charged at a flat monthly fee of Rs 25, or Rs 3 for a day’s access.

The BBC has already termed 2006 as the year of the mobile TV. “While the buzz around it is similar to the hype for 3G services, there is much greater optimism that TV will live up to its promise,” it said.

(www.financialexpress.com)