Japanese consortium sets standard for video transmission over 3G networks

A Japanese consortium, including Toshiba Corp. and NEC Corp. said Tuesday they had developed a protocol for transmission of video images over 3G networks.

"Five Japanese companies proposed the MPEG4 standard and three international organizations have adopted it," Toshiba spokesman Kazuyoshi Ishiyama said.

The consortium also includes telecoms giant Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corp., Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. Ltd. and Oki Electric Industry Co. Ltd., Ishiyama said.

The group has developed a protocol for Internet and wireless transmission of video images, processed by a common technology known as MPEG4, Ishiyama said.

The popular image-processing technology can be used on third generation (3G) mobile telephones but the lack of common transmission technology had limited the use of MPEG4.

The new standard will allow users of the MPEG4-capable software to transmit the images on the Internet and to 3G mobile telephones.

International Engineering Task Force, a regulatory body for Internet technology, recognised the new transmission method as a standard in October last year, Ishiyama said.

The international body for 3G mobile phones, the Third Generation Partnership Project, and International Telecommunication Union Telecommunication Standardization Sector, another body for packet transmission have since also adopted the Japanese standard.