Time to switch on to mobile television

Media scares about mobile TV’s potential to corrupt kids obscure the technology’s many advantages for business

Front-page headlines in the Evening Standard proclaim the arrival of 24-hour TV through mobile phones. The National Union of Teachers warns that this means the dumbing down of schoolchildren. Meanwhile, the European Commission announces plans to update its Television Without Frontiers directive by the end of December. It may insist on clear labels for ads on what it calls “non-linear” content – video on demand and news on the web.

As usual the speed of technological advance is outdone only by the desire to regulate everything. ISPs are worried by the EC’s plans; Rupert Murdoch is denouncing the proposals. Perhaps most importantly, it seems that the prospect of “adult entertainment” arriving in the school playground will foster a lot more government interference in the internet.

Two recent telecoms conferences confirm that mobile TV is making progress. At a European Telecoms Forum on the battle between different wireless technologies, David Wood, executive vice-president of research at Symbian, has sharp insights. For enterprises, he notes, mobile video conferencing might be simpler to arrange than video conferencing by landline. Wood enthuses that HSDPA is akin to 3.5G, and that it is “nearly here”.

At a separate Global Telecoms Business conference, it is left to Mike Short, chairman of the Mobile Data Association and vice-president of R&D at O2, to spell out in detail where mobile TV is leading us.

Short comes fresh from O2’s opening of a six-month trial among 400 O2 subscribers aged 18 to 35 in Oxfordshire. In a partnership with Arqiva (formerly NTL Broadcast), O2 has arranged for 16 TV channels, including the four standard terrestrial ones, Sky and CNN, to come into people’s hands. Online transactions are simple, and on 7x5cm screens the usability is excellent, says Short.

The aim of the trial is to find out more about the pattern of demand. Early results suggest that mobile TV is likely to have a bigger effect on grown-up workers than on school kids. The most popular time for mobile TV, it appears, is while commuting. And for broadcast news, the Oxfordshire results suggest, mobile may one day be the main channel for mass access.

Quite often, mobile TV will operate as an extra TV set in the home. But use at work, Short reports, it is likely to be as attractive. Already, the four main channels in Britain, along with Endemol, Warner and MTV, have developed made-for-mobile programming. It cannot be long before mainstream firms do the same.

From the Oxfordshire trials, Short hints that 17-year-olds can learn within seconds how to browse the web for images, mix them with their own stills and clips, and email them on to people.

If that kind of DIY mobile imagery doesn’t have an effect on enterprise IT, I shall be astonished.