MobiTV and IPWireless to develop Mobile TV solutions

February 8, 2006

MobiTV and IPWireless announced that the two companies plan to jointly develop next generation mobile television delivery solutions that combine today's unicast technologies with TDtv multicasting in order to optimally manage network utilization, all while providing a seamless MobiTV experience for customers. During the first half of 2006, the companies will demonstrate delivery of MobiTV over TDtv to mobile handsets.

Many operators worldwide have launched successful mobile television offerings using the Emmy Award winning MobiTV service and other multimedia services over their existing 2.5G and 3G networks. MobiTV's global network offering, using unicast technology today, accelerates time-to-market and allows operators to capitalize on early mobile television demand. In the future, adoption rate and demand for mobile television will require other broadcast or multicast solutions to compliment or co-exist with the unicast offering. TDtv is an ideal partner offering, able to leverage the newly defined 3GPP Release 6 Multimedia Broadcast and Multicast Service (MBMS) standard to allow an infinite number of customers to watch the same channel or use the same network bandwidth.

MobiTV and IPWireless plan to work together to co-develop solutions that enable operators to migrate subscribers in high-usage areas to TDtv, utilizing their existing 3G spectrum. The two companies will also work with operators to ensure this unicast and broadcast combination is seamless for the mobile subscriber. As part of this, MobiTV will develop a H.264 version of its player to run over TDtv. H.264 is the video codec defined in the 3GPP MBMS standard that allows higher quality video to be delivered over wireless networks.

"We are committed to delivering the MobiTV service on any platform and across any network. Our partnership with IPWireless to develop a high- efficiency multicast solution that will utilize existing cellular infrastructure is a natural complement and extension to the growing reach of our mobile television and music services. These new network technologies will allow even more profitable delivery of our most popular stations in even the most crowded cities," said Phillip Alvelda, CEO and chairman of MobiTV. "Operators around the world are realizing that it is in their best interest to launch mobile television services on their existing 2.5 and 3G networks and develop solutions that allow them to keep improving their offerings as new broadcast platforms are deployed."

TDtv, which is based on the newly defined 3GPP Release 6 Multimedia Broadcast and Multicast Standard (MBMS), offers operators a number of significant strategic, performance, and economic advantages over alternative mobile television solutions. TDtv operates in the universal unpaired 3G spectrum bands that are available across Europe and Asia at 1900MHz and 2010MHz. It allows UMTS operators to fully utilize their existing spectrum and base stations to offer subscribers attractive mobile TV and multimedia packages without impacting other voice and data 3G services. TDtv allows operators to deliver up to 50 channels of TV for standard cell phone screens, or 17 higher quality QVGA channels, in 5MHz of unpaired 1900 MHz spectrum, or twice the number of channels for operators with 10MHz of spectrum in the other bands supported by IPWireless worldwide. With TDtv, operators will also be able to deliver digital audio, multicast, or other IP data cast services to enhance their service offerings.

Based on a successful trial phase, IPWireless expects commercial TDtv networks to be rolled out by mid 2007 using technology from IPWireless and solutions from ecosystem partners.