Nokia Corp. and U.S. tower firm Crown Castle International Corp. have partnered to bring video services to U.S. mobile users, the companies said Tuesday.
In October, the team launched digital video broadcast for handsets (DVB-H) trials in Pittsburgh, transmitting television-type content to mobile devices. DVB is the European digital television standard; DVB-H is the variant created specifically for handsets.
The companies plan to expand trials to consumers in the future.
Unlike current U.S. mobile video transmission systems like MobiTV, DVB-H is specifically targeted at lower-power television reception with a high-speed mobility feature. The technology is expected to go live in Europe next year, whereas a mobile video standard has yet to be established in the United States.
A major cell tower owner with 10,000 sites nationwide, Crown Castle could use its 5 megahertz of national spectrum in the L band (1670-1675) to deploy the technology nationwide.
Qualcomm Inc. yesterday announced details of a separate video network it plans to market to U.S. wireless carriers.
