Integrated Mobile Broadcast to drive mobile TV

While mobile TV is increasing in popularity, it has yet to achieve the mass uptake predicted by many. Network capacity, operator and subscriber costs and content variety are often cited as factors. Now three of the UK’s biggest operators have joined forces, supported by Ericsson and leading broadcasters, to develop what just may be the catalyst for success: Integrated Mobile Broadcast (IMB).

IMB is run on parts of many European operators' 3G spectrum licenses that have remained unused to date because of technology issues; these operators have already paid for the spectrum required.

The UK divisions of operators O2, Orange and Vodafone have teamed up for the three-month trial, which will begin in October. When operators of this scale join forces, the industry knows it is because of something significant and serious. Ericsson will be the prime integrator and provide its Content Delivery System (ECDS) Mobile TV media platform.

Organizers say that the trial will include three things that previous attempts lacked: viable technology without a prohibitively expensive network upgrade; commitment from three of five major UK operators, covering the majority of the market; and compelling content from providers such as BBC, Sky and Turner.

The technology is not new, but rather a refined version of the Multimedia Broadcast Multicast Service (MBMS).

Tim Baker

Tim Baker, Systems Integration Director at Ericsson UK, says: "IMB has never been used commercially – and has barely been trialled. Our prime integrator role is not just about technology, but understanding the commercial imperatives – what the three operators' requirements are, and then building a solution for them. Quite simply, it means herding a lot of vested interests together, then removing the technical complexity."

Baker says IMB's potential includes enhancing the user experience, reducing costs for operators and offering a worthy business case for content providers and advertisers.

Broadcast TV shares data with everyone else watching the same channel, and is known as linear or live TV. Non-linear TV is always unicast or one-to-one mapping.

Baker explains why IMB (linear TV) is cheaper for operators. "If two people are watching BBC news on this new platform, then operators have to carry the data stream once only," he says. "But on the unicast platform it would have to be carried twice – or however many times there are people watching. So there will be massive savings on all live TV data carriage costs. This frees up other data channels for further revenue-generating possibilities."

Allen McCaskill

Allen McCaskill, who is responsible for multimedia business development at Ericsson UK, says: "This is an unprecedented trial – the first time that these three mobile operators have come together like this. This has given the major content providers in the UK a reason to become actively engaged. Previously, mobile TV presented little value to the consumers because it didn't have any valuable content. And we couldn't get the attractive content to be part of any trial with only a single operator. But now the crème de la crème of content providers – BBC, Channel 4, Channel 5, Sky and Turner – are on board to provide live channels for this trial."

McCaskill says that all of those involved in the trial already have the same benchmark in mind that they will use to judge the success of the IMB solution: the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games.

"Imagine the pressure on the IP network during the games; people wanting to watch sports on their mobile phones," he says. "If there isn't a commercial solution for mobile TV using linear TV, then the operators will face a huge challenge in keeping their IP networks fully operable."

The trial will be conducted over eight UK base stations: five in London near the head offices of Orange and Vodafone, one near O2's head office in Slough and two in Orange's test labs in Bristol. One hundred mobile phones fitted with the IMB chipset will be used by participating operators and content providers.