Analysys Mason, industry observer and trend watcher, is looking to alternatives to the standard operating procedure in its latest report, “Critical Ingredients of Mobile TV.” Despite many operators' plans to mix 3G and dedicated mobile broadcasting networks to deliver mobile TV and video services, the report says indoor wireless systems like femtocells and WLANs could work just as well, if not better.
DVB-H trials show that 36 percent to 50 percent of participants who use mobile TV services use them mainly at home. Indoor systems like femtocells can carry this traffic with potentially better quality than outdoor 3G and broadcasting networks can.
Sideloading, transferring content from a PC or other device to mobile phone memory, is highly effective at delivering non-time critical content like prerecorded TV programs and movies, and, unlike other mobile TV distribution, can provide reliable high quality in any location.
The benefits are most obvious for operators who can't deploy broadcasting networks without filling up their 3G networks' capacity. If 75 percent of mobile TV content was delivered using sideloading and 60 percent of streamed content was watched indoors, 3G networks would only need to carry 10 percent of total mobile TV traffic.
For more information, visit www.analysysmason.com/Research/Publications/Reports/Mobile/Critical-ingredients-of-mobile-TV-femtocells-and-sideloading/.
