Orange and T-Mobile UK today announced they intend to jointly
pilot a new mobile TV and multimedia broadcast service in London using
NextWave Wireless´ (Nasdaq - WAVE) UMTS MBMS based TDtv solution. The
pilot, scheduled for the second half of 2008, will be targeted at
people living or working in West London and will demonstrate how the
cost of providing high-quality, mass market mobile TV and multimedia
broadcast services can be significantly reduced when mobile operators
share widely-available unpaired 3G spectrum and a standards-based TDtv
broadcast network. It will also showcase an innovative consortium
model that can be easily replicated by mobile operators in more than
50 other countries where unpaired 3G spectrum is available.
During the six-month pilot Orange and T-Mobile UK customers will
use TDtv-enabled WCDMA handsets to receive up to 24 high-resolution
television channels along with 10 digital radio stations at a far
lower delivery cost per channel than previously possible. By providing
more channels with higher picture quality that are fully integrated
with existing multimedia services, the pilot service is expected to
conclusively prove customer demand for mobile broadcast TV and radio
services. The channel lineup is expected to include many of the most
popular broadcast and premium television channels in the UK.
Mobile network operators in Europe and the Asia Pacific who also
own unpaired UMTS spectrum will be invited to participate in the pilot
as observers. In addition, leading handset manufacturers who can make
TDtv a standard feature in their devices will also be invited to
observe the pilot. During the pilot, the companies intend to show that
when mobile network operators, content providers and technology
companies work together with MBMS technology, mobile TV costs can be
significantly reduced.
Paul Jevons, Product and Innovation Director, Orange said: "Orange
was the first UK network operator to introduce a mobile TV service in
May 2005, and is continually looking for unique insights and
innovative content to ensure that Orange Mobile TV continues to grow
and develop in a way that offers the best available standard of
service for our customers. The results from the technical trial of
TDtv in Bristol last year were extremely encouraging, and this joint
pilot of the service in London is an excellent opportunity for us to
properly explore the great potential available to our customers from
the technology.
Orange Mobile TV already offers a broad range of content including
the major terrestrial channels BBC, ITV, Channel 4 and Channel 5, as
well as Sky and most recently Setanta allowing Orange mobile TV
customers to see live coverage of every televised match from the
Barclays Premier League."
T-Mobile UK Technical Director, Emin Gurdenli, said, "We are
committed to widening the appeal of our Mobile TV offering, from the
point of view content and user experience. Last year, we revamped our
offering with the addition of three Sky Mobile TV packages and eight
BBC TV and radio channels to provide customers with more choice. On a
technical level, our involvement with this TDtv pilot is intended to
raise awareness of the potential of broadcast mobile TV and help
stimulate the development of an industry-wide ecosystem in which
operators, handset manufacturers and content providers collaborate to
realize a robust commercial proposition. TDtv uses part of the
licensed 3G spectrum which is unused at the moment and is a technology
that can scale to support high simultaneous usage levels without any
degradation in quality. This solution would be ideal for broadcasting
live, large sporting events such as the 2012 Olympic Games to high
population densities."
The pilot will be powered by an end-to-end mobile broadcast
solution developed by NextWave Wireless that will include TDtv network
infrastructure based on the 3GPP UMTS TDD MBMS standard. NextWave will
also provide a TDtv Device Integration Pack, a complete chipset and
software package that enables handset vendors to quickly add TDtv to
any multimedia enabled WCDMA handset. In addition, NextWave´s Packet
Video (PV) subsidiary will provide a complete Electronics Programming
Guide that will integrate the TDtv service with the operators´
existing 3G services. PacketVideo will also provide the pilot its new
MediaFusion(TM) platform, a white-label, client-server software
application that allows mobile operators to rapidly develop and launch
on-device portals for rich media services, including music-on-demand,
personalized streaming radio, live TV, and video-on-demand.
"We are rapidly moving into a new and exciting wireless era, the
era of mobile multimedia where your favourite movies, television
shows, and music will be accessible everywhere you go, in the palm of
your hand. It´s why we developed our innovative TDtv mobile broadcast
solution," said Allen Salmasi, CEO of NextWave Wireless. "We believe
today´s announcement of a joint TDtv initiative by two of the world´s
largest mobile network operators represents an important milestone in
the evolution of mobile multimedia and will clearly demonstrate the
compelling economics of marrying our innovative TDtv technology with
underutilized 3G spectrum to deliver high-quality mobile television
services to the mass market."
For more information:
Dr. Bill Jones, CEO of NextWave Network Products and Marc Fossier,
CTO of France Telecom, will deliver the opening presentation of the
Mobile TV track - "Mobile TV - Technology Debate: Delivering Mobile TV
Over 3G with MBMS." The session will be held on Tuesday, February
12th, from 11:40 - 13:10 at the GSM/Mobile World Congress.
About TDtv
TDtv is a 3GPP MBMS solution that provides mobile operators an
opportunity to profitably deliver multiple, high-resolution TV
channels, digital audio, or other IP data-cast services to an
unlimited number of concurrent customers. In 2007, Vodafone,
Telefonica, Orange, 3UK, and IPWireless announced successful results
from a joint technical trial of TDtv in Bristol. The trial
demonstrated TDtv´s ability to reliably deliver a large number of
high-quality channels in 5 MHz of TDD spectrum with coverage
comparable to WCDMA, but with far fewer cell sites. The trial also
demonstrated the viability of dual-mode TDtv/WCDMA handsets as well as
the ability of the technology to support full mobility at vehicular
speeds. IPWireless was acquired by NextWave Wireless in May, 2007 and
now operates as part of NextWave Wireless.
TDtv operates in the universal unpaired (TDD) 3G spectrum bands
that are available across Europe and Asia at 1900 MHz and 2010 MHz. It
enables UMTS operators to utilize their existing TDD spectrum to offer
subscribers attractive mobile TV and multimedia packages without
impacting their 3G voice and data services which use universal paired
(FDD) 3G spectrum. In addition, the technology supports network
sharing to further reduce deployment and operational costs.
About Orange
Orange is a key brand of the France Telecom Group, providing
mobile, broadband, fixed, business and entertainment services across
Europe. It is one of the world´s leading telecommunications operators
with more than 163 million customers on five continents.
In June, 2006, Orange became the single brand for mobile,
broadband and multi-play offers. In addition, Orange Business Services
became the new banner for business communications solutions. Orange
Business Services is present in 166 countries with network reach in
220.
In the UK, Orange provides high quality GSM coverage to 99% of the
UK population. At the end of December 2007, Orange had over 16.8
million customers in the UK - 15.6 million active mobile customers and
nearly 1.14 million broadband customers.
Orange and any other Orange product or service names included in
this material are trade marks of Orange Personal Communications
Services Limited.
Further information about Orange and France Telecom can be found
on the Orange website at www.orange.co.uk or the France Telecom
website at www.francetelecom.com
For further information, call the Orange press office on 0870 373
1500 or email: Orangepr@golinharris.com.
About T-Mobile UK
T-Mobile is one of the world´s largest mobile operators with more
than 119 million customers worldwide and in the UK it is the network
of choice for 17.3 million customers, making it one of the largest
networks. T-Mobile has a range of innovative products and services
such as Flext, a unique tariff with flexible pricing; U-Fix, a tariff
that combines pay-as-you-go and a monthly contract and web´n´walk,
which enables customers to surf websites on the move. T-Mobile´s
network coverage is among the best in the UK (over 99 per cent of the
UK population) with one of the lowest dropped call rates. It offers
the largest worldwide Wi-Fi network, with more than 1,000 HotSpots in
business-friendly locations in the UK and 21,000 worldwide, and offers
the fastest HSDPA network across the UK with speeds of up to 1.8mb per
second.
For more information about T-Mobile UK, please visit
www.t-mobile.co.uk
About NextWave Wireless
NextWave Wireless Inc., (Nasdaq: WAVE) provides the software,
systems, and silicon solutions that enable cutting-edge mobile
broadcast and multimedia services. The company´s products and
technologies include an innovative UMTS based TDtv mobile broadcast
solution developed by its IPWireless subsidiary, a family of
high-performance WiMAX semiconductors, end-to-end mobile broadband
systems, and device-embedded mobile multimedia software developed by
its PacketVideo subsidiary that can be found in over 200 million
handsets around the globe. NextWave´s customers include many of the
largest mobile handset manufacturers, network equipment suppliers, and
wireless service providers in the world. Visit NextWave at
www.nextwave.com.
Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements
This press release contains "forward-looking statements" for
purposes of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 that
involve risks and uncertainties. There can be no assurances that
forward-looking statements will be achieved, and actual events or
results could differ materially from the events or results predicted
by such statements. Important factors that could cause actual events
or results to differ materially are discussed in greater detail in the
filings of NextWave with the Securities and Exchange Commission. All
such documents are available through the SEC´s website at www.sec.gov.
NextWave makes no commitment to update any forward-looking statements
in order to reflect subsequent changes in events or circumstances
except as may be required pursuant to applicable law.