Nokia, Finnish TV Groups to Pilot Mobile Broadcasting Services

Nokia is working with commercial TV broadcasters Nelonen and MTV and public TV broadcaster YLE (the Finnish Broadcasting Company) to test IP datacasting (IPDC) for delivering TV-like services to mobile devices. A press release from Nokia said the aim of the pilot is "to gain experience about real end-user acceptance for mobile broadcasting services." Five hundred users will be recruited for the pilot, which will take place next fall in the Helsinki metropolitan area.

Finland currently has three terrestrial networks for DTV broadcasting. A fourth network would be reserved to mobile datacasting (IPDC services) using the DVB-H standard for broadcasting to handheld devices.

Telecommunications providers TeliaSonera Finland and Radiolinja will provide access for the TV-like services to the end-users. TV broadcasters Nelonen, MTV and YLE will produce the content. Digita will operate the IPDC service system and network. Digita will also manage the services and broadcast them on-air. Nokia will supply IPDC specific equipment to enable devices to receive the broadcast signal.

Although the press release had limited technical data, this setup appears to be different than the TV to cell phone services being tested in Japan and Asia, which use a reserved part of the broadcast DVB-T signal for the data instead of a dedicated mobile digital broadcast network.