Progress in Mobile DTV Rollout Cited by Lawmakers Eyeing Spectrum Efficiency
Progress in the rollout by two broadcaster technology coalitions of mobile DTV, now commercially available to about half of Americans, was cited by senior House Communications Subcommittee members of both parties. Speaking at a Capitol Hill mobile DTV and mobile emergency alert system (M-EAS) demo Thursday, they said those new technologies’ use of spectrum already allocated to broadcasters helps meet increasing consumer demand for streaming video. Lawmakers recognized consumption of mobile DTV -- TV stations sending live shows to portable devices and as of this summer one model of Samsung cellphone on MetroPCS (CD Aug 10 p10) -- doesn’t use wireless spectrum or incur data consumption charges to cellphone subscribers.
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Improvements to mobile DTV will include its compatibility with a wider array of mobile devices, said executives from the Mobile Content Venture of 12 TV station owners that include broadcast networks. Its Dyle mobile DTV service is available in a dozen markets served by MetroPCS’s wireless network, and the Mobile500 DTV alliance of other commercial and public broadcasting stations. The product’s commercially available in about 50 U.S. markets, which combined get programming from 130 stations, the executives said. They said the Advanced Television Systems Committee, whose A/153 standard underlies mobile DTV, will have a standard for M-EAS available next year.
Offering mobile DTV commercially, which “caps a five-year effort,” means broadcasters “can finally answer the question of when” the service will be available, said LIN TV CEO Vince Sadusky, president of the Open Mobile Video Coalition that put on Thursday’s event. Rep. Cliff Stearns, R-Fla., is “a little surprised we didn’t get here earlier,” he said of what he later called the “wave of a bright new future.” Broadcasting a program to many people, instead of streaming individual videos to each user, is a “great solution” as “we need more spectrum,” with “insatiable demand” for mobile video, Stearns said. He'd lost his primary race for a district that includes Orlando, where he noted mobile DTV’s available.
The subcommittee’s been working on spectrum for a while, and it’s a top priority, said Stearns and Ranking Member Anna Eshoo, D-Calif. “We have to work together in order to reallocate” frequencies, she said. “There is an insatiable appetite on the part of consumers for more spectrum. Everything is moving to mobile now.” Mobile DTV’s an “alternative to Internet-based content” that “gives consumers the benefit of not having to use up their wireless data plan, so this is really smart,” Eshoo said. The voluntary incentive auction of TV station frequencies the FCC was authorized by a February law to hold is a “rather curious device,” said Rep. John Dingell, D-Mich. He said the agency wasn’t able to fully answer his previous questions about the impact on broadcasters of the auction and repacking of TV channels that would be necessary to clear frequencies for carriers to use for mobile broadband.
It’s a “huge day” for “free, mobile and you don’t need anyone’s spectrum,” said Rep. Ed Markey, D-Mass. “This TV on the go, I think, is something that is going to transform” the U.S., he said. “Broadcasters have a vision where we one day reach a point where no American, when walking down the street, ever looks up,” he said jokingly of viewers staring down at small screens. The Mobile500 Alliance will have “our soft consumer launches” in the fall in Minneapolis and Seattle, said Fisher Senior Vice President Randa Minkarah. “From that, we will take our learnings and launch other markets very quickly."
Also Thursday, Howard University said its WHUT-TV Washington became the second station to agree to start sending weather and other alerts in M-EAS. Capitol Broadcasting’s WRAL last week became the first U.S. commercial broadcaster to back M-EAS (CD Sept 13 p21). The service, tested in the past year by public TV and Fisher stations (CD Dec 1 p9), sends multimedia alerts to devices getting mobile DTV.