In a case of oh shiznit, LG and Samsung are combining forces to protect their mobile TV interests in the US. With Qualcomm's proprietary MediaFLO digital broadcast technology rapidly gaining a mobile TV foothold in the US (thanks to AT&T and Verizon) and Europe standardizing on DVB-H, it seems that LG and Samsung (the once proud and gloating parents of the DMB standard) have little choice but to support the ATSC's attempt to create the ATSC-M/H standard in the US... about three years too late. Of course, the ultimate victor will have very little to do with what's best for the consumer and everything to do with who is most successful at lobbying the government. Oh, did that sound bitter? Good.

While some manufacturers stay home pouting about mobile TV's slow uptake in Europe, Samsung isn't giving up on the Euro DVB-H market just yet, hoping to entice viewers with better features. The company's new SGH-P960 adds integrated DVR functionality, like pausing live TV when it rings, meaning you won't miss any of the action on the slider's 2.6-inch, 240 x 320 screen. Other TV niceties include picture-in-picture, an on-screen programming guide, and an integrated Bang & Olufsen amplifier. A 3 megapixel cam with LED flash on the back rounds out what sounds like a nice package, but with no word on price or availability outside of Europe it's hard to get too excited.

Ah ha! So this is what DISH Network was planning on doing with its recently-purchased swath of spectrum. Just under two months after analysts pondered what the firm was thinking throwing out bids for a smidgen of bandwidth -- and not even a fortnight after the ICO G1 successfully launched in order to bring DVB-SH to America -- out comes the whole truth. The satcaster is teaming up with Alcatel-Lucent to test the Digital Video Broadcasting - Satellite services to Handhelds technology right here in the US, with A-L providing the equipment, test tools and training. The evaluation will be taking place at a DISH facility in Atlanta from May until August, with the ultimate goal to "validate the performance and cost-efficiency of the DVB-SH standard." As expected, we're only given crumbs of information as to where this partnership may lead, but we should be much more clear on everything by the time the summer concludes.

As expected, the European Commission just did the obvious and made the EU's de facto DVB-H standard, standard. The move is expected to accelerate the deployment of mobile television services across Europe in the same way that GSM standardization in the early 90s gave Europe a head-start on backwater cellular locations like North America. So get outta Dodge Qualcomm and South Korea with your MediaFLO and DMB mobile television technologies, you aren't welcome around Brussels anymore.

PacketVideo has a new receiver which can pump mobile TV over good ol' WiFi. PV claims the device will ultimately ship before the year is out in versions supporting over-the-air DVB-H and MediaFLO broadcasting as well as TDtv and WiMAX streaming. Although it's presumably compatible with any WiFi device, they specifically cite support for the iPhone, N-Series Nokias and HTC devices while demonstrating the device with an iPod touch at Mobile World Congress. The 6.4 x 1.8 x 4-cm block is powered by a lithium-ion battery of unspecified capabilities. Although it's not stated, we assume the received television can be shared with multiple devices over that wireless link -- else why bother with WiFi?

[Via Slashphone]

Rumored for a few weeks now as the N95's successor in waiting, the mighty N96 dual slider has gone all official on us at Mobile World Congress today. Though the phone it replaces is still a beast by any measure, the N96 pushes the envelope further by packing a solid 16GB of storage internally in addition to a microSD slot, something the N95 8GB lacks. The 5 megapixel autofocus camera with Carl Zeiss Tessar lens carries over, but there are now two LEDs doing flash and video light duty. The 2.8 inch QVGA display will come in handy for the integrated DVB-H mobile TV tuner, while a 3.5mm headphone jack, A2DP, and integrated stereo speakers should handle audio with aplomb. Other features include WiFi, AGPS, and morphing lights on the smaller second slide that hook the user up with game controls when it's time to relax with a little N-Gage action. Unfortunately, the first version of the N96 (and the only version announced thus far) supports HSDPA only on the 900 and 2100MHz bands, but we imagine the strength of the spec sheet should still be enough to sell a few of these stateside when it launches in the third quarter for €550 (about $797).

No, it's not that 700MHz spectrum, but the $2.5 billion sale of the airwaves to AT&T from private firm Aloha Partners could have implications as large as Auction 73's massive, open-access Block C itself. Given that Aloha's Hiwire trials for DVB-H-based mobile TV have been playing in the 700MHz arena, we suspect this could spell doom for the whole project -- and on the heels of Modeo's collapse, very likely spells doom for DVB-H on the whole in the US. Though that's great news for Qualcomm and DVB-H competitor MediaFLO, it's awful news for the prospect of a global mobile TV standard, closely (if not eerily) following what happened years back with the European Union's selection of GSM and the rise of CDMA in North America. For its part, AT&T says it's going to use its newfound airwaves -- which cover 72 of the top 100 US markets -- for "broadcast video or for two-way communications such as voice, data or multicast content." Admittedly, the "broadcast video" part of that leads us to believe that Hiwire could somehow survive the change in ownership, but with AT&T's selection of MediaFLO last year as its standard of choice, it sure ain't likely.

Though it once appeared as if DVB-SH was headed for high times in Europe, DVB-H eventually won out as the nationwide standard, but that certainly doesn't mean other standards can't compete within the region. Reportedly, Alcatel-Lucent has agreed to launch the first trial of the technology in Italy with RAI and 3 Italia, and while DVB-SH would likely be more costly to implement due to its position in the spectrum, European telecoms are grasping for options to satisfy the growing desire for mobile TV. If all goes as planned, the trials will take place in Turin over the next few months, but it wasn't clear when Jane / John Doe would be called in to participate. Also of note, a cellphone provider has yet to be selected, but it sounds like Samsung and Sagem both made it onto the short list.

[Via mocoNews]

Despite a recent drive to lock down DVB-H as the European Union's single, unified standard for mobile television, a handful of member nations are starting to fight back. On the surface, arguments within the EU's hallowed chambers appear to center around concerns that DVB-H's selection is arbitrary (and when we say "arbitrary" we mean "heavily backed by Europe's own Nokia") and that the powers that be should let the market shake itself out; in reality, though, a large bit of the contention likely has to do with the fact that Germany, the UK, and others have all already kicked off systems using the rival DMB standard. The EU wants to see mobile television blessed with the same overwhelming standardization that blessed GSM back in the day -- preferably in time for next year's soccer and Olympic games -- but we've gotta feel for the companies and countries that have already invested heavily in other networks, too. MediaFLO, what say you?

[Via mocoNews]

The European mobile phone community was rocked by the news today that DVB-H (or Digital Video Broadcasting - Handheld) is set to become the new standard for mobile TV across the Union. The technology -- a superset of DVB-T -- has been spearheaded by Nokia, and this move is meant to help widen the system's audience. Though the move has been opposed by some EU states, such as Germany and Britain, the standard is being pushed through. "DVB-H will be published by the Commission in the list of official EU standards," said an EU executive, adding that, "As a result, all EU Member States will have to support and encourage the use of DVB-H for the launch of mobile TV services, thus avoiding market fragmentation and allowing economies of scale and accordingly affordable services and devices." So much for our fledgling standard, DVB-X (the X is for extreme).

If you've ever wondered just how much functionality could be crammed into a single PC Card, it seems that Onda and Siano are out to give you an answer. Deemed the "world's first combined DVB-H / HSDPA card" for Italy's TIM, the DT501HS enables users to suck down mobile TV and internet content in one fell swoop, but we've no idea if / when this thing will be made available on any other carrier(s). Notably, this device relies on Siano's wee PCB-mounted SMS8021 antenna, which means that you won't find any external protrusions here. As for pricing, we weren't able to locate any hard figures, but those parked in Italy should be able to snap one up anytime now in TIM stores.

[Image courtesy of Cellular]

Thanks to South Africa's DMTV Limited, Kenya this week became just the seventh country in the world to launch a commercial mobile TV service based on DVB-H, Europe's standard of choice (and a standard we might eventually enjoy in the US if MediaFLO doesn't snuff it out). Launch channels include mega-hits like Africa Magic, Africa Big Brother, and SuperSport Update, with a grand total of 10 stations at launch running 1,000 Kenyan shillings (about $15) a month. DMTV has committed to rolling out the service to all of Kenya's carriers, though it seems that coverage is limited to Nairobi at the moment.

[Via mocoNews]

Germany wasted no time doling out licenses -- or license, in this case -- for its DVB-H airwaves following the EU's decision to standardize on the technology for mobile TV. Deutsche Telekom's T-Systems unit is the lucky recipient, a logical move considering that the company has apparently had a DVB-H trial running in Berlin since 2005. The build-out is expected to start in early '08, with all of Germany's state capitals getting the hookup by year end; the remainder of the country's going to take a good long while, though, with 90 percent of the populace getting covered by 2015 (geez, how do we know DVB-H is even going to be relevant by then?). It apparently hasn't been decided yet who's going to be building the network, but... well, something tells us T-Systems is going to play a role in there somewhere.

[Via mocoNews]

RCR had the opportunity to fiddle around with the live, fully functional DVB-H trial Hiwire is running in cooperation with T-Mobile in Las Vegas, and if the phrase "ready for prime time" is any indication, it sounds like they liked what they saw. Using an LG U900 for service, RCR ran around Sin City comparing Hiwire's efforts to Verizon's MediaFLO-based VCAST TV -- a service that's been live for much of this year -- and found that the two were pretty much a wash for user experience. Hiwire's 24 channels of mind-numbing entertainment bests VCAST TV's lineup by a wide margin, but VCAST TV took significantly less time to switch between those channels (2 seconds compared to about 5); interestingly, though, VCAST TV seemed to be about 5 seconds delayed behind Hiwire, so it's a tradeoff. Of course, as RCR points out, Hiwire suffers from the same fundamental problem as VCAST TV -- subscribers would be paying for pretty much exactly the same content they're already paying for on their home televisions, albeit on a heck of a lot smaller screen -- so even if the service looks ready for commercial launch, is anyone ready to buy?

MediaFLO's clearly the overwhelming favorite in the nascent (or is that nonexistent?) US mobile TV market, having already bagged two of the four national carriers while the other two -- Sprint and T-Mobile -- spin their wheels in trials. On the other side of the fence, though, lies DVB-H, the Europe-wide standard that has inexplicably found virtually zero carrier love in States despite broad manufacturer support. Presently, the US' meager DVB-H efforts are represented by Hiwire's trials alone now that Modeo's slipped its mortal coil and gone to that Big HTC Foreseer in the Sky; that could be about to change, though, with ICO and Clearwire announcing that they'll be bringing a DVB-H trials Raleigh, North Carolina and Las Vegas early next year. Two DVB-H supporters is clearly better than one in the effort to better balance the Qualcomm juggernaut here, but we still need a carrier deal or two to lock it all up. Best of luck, fellas.