Written by: Juan-Antonio Ibanez, Thorsten Lohmar, Dalibor Turina and Aurélie Zanin

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User interest in mobile TV services is growing thanks especially to the rapidly evolving multimedia capabilities of mobile terminals. Mobile operators are thus eyeing mobile TV services both as a new source of revenue and as a way of increasing customer loyalty.

This article looks at some key components of a mobile TV solution that capitalizes on the capabilities of third-generation (3G) networks ? in particular, built-in support of unicast and broadcast transmission, which fosters and sustains a strong uptake of service.

Drivers and challenges of a mass-market mobile TV service
Surveys show that end-users consider mobile TV to be one of the most interesting mobile applications on offer. Mobile TV is often identified with "linear TV" and scheduled broadcast distribution, but the concept of TV and especially that of mobile TV is rapidly evolving to embrace on-demand TV as well as podcast TV.

Market surveys and feedback from numerous test and commercial installations around the world confirm that users expect to be able to access TV content when and where they want, for instance while they are commuting via bus or rail.

As mobile TV gains ground among operators and end-users, the need to deliver it in a cost-effective way with guaranteed quality of service (QoS) becomes paramount. These two aspects are equally important: cost-effective delivery is a must in order for operators to maximize their revenues, just as adequate quality of service is necessary to guarantee a satisfactory end-user experience.

At present, mobile TV services are delivered over unicast best-effort bearers. In most cases, this form of delivery is adequate provided there is sufficient capacity in the network. Notwithstanding, a surge in the volume of packet data traffic is putting pressure on the ability of networks to deliver delay-sensitive streaming services. For mobile TV services to succeed, a number of enablers must be put into place that maintain and improve the quality of the end-user experience. These enablers are network capacity through proper dimensioning and enhanced technology; improved QoS handling for streaming services (as compared with background interactive traffic); and efficient broadcast capabilities in 3G networks - for example, multimedia broadcast/multicast service (MBMS).

Ericsson, followed by other companies, is introducing these enablers into its networks and terminals, and commercial deployments are set to begin in 2008. High-speed downlink packet access (HSDPA), for instance, brings exceptional capacity to unicast. Similarly, streaming QoS with guaranteed bit rates is now being introduced into terminals (it is already widely supported in networks). And initial deployments of MBMS began in 2008, adding unique broadcast capabilities to 3G networks.

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