Commercial DVB-H trial to begin January 2007

O2 and Arqiva recently announced the first trial of broadcast mobile TV in Ireland. DVB-H pilot transmissions will start in December with a full 8-month trial beginning in January 2007. Four hundred O2 Ireland customers in the greater Dublin area are expected to take part using Nokia N92 mobile phones. Part of the trial will investigate interactive services to be linked with some music video and video games channels. Other material to be broadcast includes the main Irish TV channels.
A full report on the outputs of the trials will be presented to the Department of Communications, Marine and Natural Resources and ComReg in 2007.
Ireland is now pushing ahead with digital TV and a two-year pilot is set to start this autumn and according to siliconrepublic.com, Ireland already has 700,000 households subscribing to digital satellite and cable/MMDS services from Sky (427,000) and UPC Ireland (formerly NTL and Chorus, with over 260,000).
Sources: Arqiva and silicon republic
Item added: 24th October 2006