While several mobile video services from carriers have been announced in recent months, there’s still a long way to go before provider can give consumers what they really want – a mix of mass media news and personalized information, from the same network.
The situation was a top topic of discussion among wireless network infrastructure providers at the CTIA show this past week.
Sold on the value of mobile video, Verizon, AT&T and others have all announced services through partnerships with Qualcomm Inc.’s MediaFLO USA Inc. network unit as opposed to running the content over their own mobile networks.
That gives consumers a quick fix, using MediaFLO’s dedicated network, but only if its news broadcast to everyone at the same time. Telcos have long said they want to eventually offer consumers personalized information as well.
So instead of tuning into a wireless video channel on the MediaFLO network and getting a broadcast of the performance of all stocks, you could receive data just on your own stocks using personalization capabilities.
Infrastructure kingpins such as Ericsson Inc. and Motorola say that WiMAX can deliver the best of both worlds – and via handsets with a single modem chip, as opposed to adding a second chip to broadcast enabled endpoints.
For its part, Sprint Nextel Corp. this week announced plans to offer WiMAX service in 19 U.S. markets and said it is in device negotiations with vendors Samsung Corp., Zyxel and ZTE Corp. Sprint hopes to reach 100 million people by the end of next year with its 4G nationwide network.
At present, service providers risk becoming me-too providers of the same mobile video content as MediaFLO serves as the aggregator. That takes the ability to personalize content for consumers out of carriers’ hands.
The reason telcos have teamed with the likes of MediaFLO instead of their own wireless networks is that the company already has an established network for broadcast video that can handle bandwidth demands mobile operators don’t yet possess, according to equipment vendors.
And then there’s the issue of cost.
“Broadcast a la MediaFLO is pretty cheap per user,” explained Tom Nolle, president of CIMI Corp. “If you establish a user personal data service it means custom bandwidth per user, which costs a mobile operator a ton of money (especially in mobile backhaul). It can be done now, but most people wouldn't pay the freight.”
Video quality and service performance on current mobile operator networks would require more bandwidth than is currently available. That will change, according to the likes of Ericsson and Motorola, but for now personalization appears to be something of a pipe dream.
AT&T Inc. www.att.com
Ericsson Inc. www.ericsson.com
MediaFLO, USA, Inc. www.qualcomm.com
Motorola Inc. www.motorola.com
Samsung Corp. www.samsung.com
Sprint Nextel Corp. www.sprintnextel.com
Verizon Communications, Inc. www.verizon.com
ZTE Corp. www.zte.com
Zyxel Communications Corp. www.zyxel.com
