The problem in the US and Europe is, mobile operators don't see why they should offer phones with M/H built in, because they don't understand how THEY would benefit. Here's a quote from a somewhat related article: http://www.rethink-wireless.com/2010/06/03/telegent-research-shows-uk-consumers-love-mobile-tv.htm "There has never been any doubt that consumers want mobile TV. What is in doubt is how mobile operators can make money out of it, and if they can't then they don't yet see a reason to offer it." This is so reminiscent of the days before HDTV, when broadcasters couldn't figure out how they would benefit. The argument has always seemed brain-dead to me. The reason the service provider benefits is that customers want it. The ONLY consideration of the service provider SHOULD be, can I afford to offer the service? So for example, if FOTA TV to cell phones costs the service provider next to nothing, and the customers want it, then why not do what customers are asking for? Same with HDTV. The cost of transmitting HD content, if not creating it, was small for the local broadcaster. So why fight it? Now, at least AT&T customers will have a good reason to want FOTA TV via the M/H pipe. I suppose that AT&T's response could be that it's an "opportunity cost." As in, "Yeah, but if I refuse to offer M/H, I can really rake in the dough when these suckers are forced to pay for all that bandwidth." That's why you need competition rather than collusion. Bert ------------------------------ http://www.tvtechnology.com/article/101528 Just in Time for MDTV: AT&T Ending Unlimited Wireless Plans by Doug Lung, 06.03.2010. When talking to people about ATSC mobile DTV, I sometimes get the response, "Why do we need it? We can stream any video we want on our iPhone over the Internet." The news release AT&T Announces New Lower-Priced Wireless Data Plans to Make Mobile Internet More Affordable to More People should put an end to that argument. Indeed, Business Insider's headline was AT&T Just Put A Bullet in Mobile DTV. The "bullet" was not aimed at ATSC mobile DTV, but Internet based mobile DTV. Under the AT&T's new plan, consumers will pay an average of $10/GB for data. Customers who watch too much online video could be in for "bill shock." I expect other wireless carriers, at least the major ones, will follow AT&T's lead. Note that if you read the fine print, some plans advertised as "unlimited" are really capped at 5 GB/month in the terms of service by saying that if you are using more than 5 GB/month, you must be violating the terms of service. Exceeding those limits can be a lot more costly than AT&T's new plan. As I've pointed out before, using the Internet to distribute video programming is horribly inefficient. Every viewer needs their own slice of bandwidth to view the program. If someone sitting next to them is watching the same program on the same wireless carrier, twice the bandwidth will be needed. Add a third person and it triples, and so on. Compare this to a broadcast model, where the same bandwidth is required to reach 1 million people as is required to reach 1 person. As demand for mobile video grows, even with more spectrum, wireless carriers will have trouble meeting consumers insatiable demand for programming, especially when they start trying to watch streaming HDTV over a wireless Internet connection! It looks like broadcast mobile DTV is ending up as the only economical way to provide consumers live mobile video. To get an idea of how various on-line activities impact bandwidth usage, check out AT&T's bandwidth calculator. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- You can UNSUBSCRIBE from the OpenDTV list in two ways: - Using the UNSUBSCRIBE command in your user configuration settings at FreeLists.org - By sending a message to: opendtv-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with the word unsubscribe in the subject line.