Although announced way back in November, Nokia's flagship N92 DVB-H phone still isn't shipping. Of course, that hasn't kept it from making the occasional appearance at DVB-H pilots across Europe. And with Germany (and the world) now fully consumed by the World Cup, yet another German DVB-H pilot project has launched with local operators E-Plus, O2, T-Mobile, and Vodaphone pumping out that mobile digital feed. The pilot consists of 14 television channels (and six radio) broadcasting live matches and other programming to "guests" using a variety of DVB-H handsets (presumably from LG, Samsung and maybe even BenQ-Siemens), including the N92. The pilot is being held in the largest German cities and will run until August 31st, except in Munich where it ends on July 31 allowing ample time to prepare for beer drinking season. And in case you're wondering, the N92 is expected to hit Europe mid-summer for an unsubsidized price of €600 ($758); beaucoup bucks for a service offering in trial-mode everywhere 'cept Finland and maybe Italy.

[Via Mobiledia]

You've heard of Nokia's DVB-H handsets (N92 to right) for months, but did you know they're also a major player behind the scenes? Nokia just inked a deal in their native Finland to supply Digita Oy with their MBS 3.0 service management platform for DVB-H mobile TV services. Nokia's MBS delivers consumer necessities such as an interface for searching services, an EPG, and the ability to set alerts for upcoming programs in addition to packing-in industry faves like OMA DRM 2.0 to protect content which can be offered within flexible pricing schemes. Digita, which already purchased those precious broadcast frequencies earlier this year, will operate the network and offer-up broadcast services to the likes of cellphone operators. Mobile TV services are expected launch later this year reaching 29% of the Finnish population by the end of 2006. So next time you hear Nokia slaggin' off DMB or Qualcomm's technically superior FLO mobile TV standards, well, now you know why.

[Via Textually.org]