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Watching television is probably the most popular form of entertainment for many Indians. But are consumers keen to receive TV channels broadcast onto a mobile device?
The Ministry of Information & Broadcasting certainly thinks so and is making plans to auction spectrum for launching Mobile TV services in the country. According to this plan, the I&B Ministry wants to sell 96 units (in Mhz) of spectrum in the 700 Mhz frequency band to four players for offering Mobile TV services.
But this plan has sparked off a debate between the I&B Ministry and the Telecom Ministry. The Telecom Ministry is opposing the I&B Ministry's plan on two grounds — first, the 700 Mhz band ranges from 698 Mhz to 806 Mhz and has been identified by the International Telecommunication Union for telecom services; and second, Mobile TV services have not taken off in a big way in other countries. Even an attempt by Doordarshan to launch Mobile TV service commercially in 2007 has so far failed to take off.
Difficult business case
To be clear, Mobile TV service is different from the unicast TV services over mobile networks, which telecom operators currently provide on their third-generation (3G) network using media delivery platforms such as those provided by Apalya technologies. While Mobile TV enables users to get as many as 30 high-quality channels on a handset, 3G-based technologies' TV services may be in the form of short clips of two to three channels at most.
TV on mobile networks can be offered using the same spectrum, infrastructure and handsets used for availing 3G services.
Mobile TV, on the other hand, is based on broadcast technology for which operators need a separate network infrastructure and dedicated spectrum. Consumers would also need a device that supports Mobile TV. This means additional investments from both the operators and the consumers, making the business case a difficult one.
“There are a range of issues standing in the way of developing an environment that will enable Mobile TV to take off as a successful industry. These range from infrastructure issues and a lack of investment to the simple absence of evidence to prove the consumer-use case,” says Tim Renowden from technology analyst firm Ovum, which recently released a report on Mobile TV.
Another issue that could come in the way of Mobile TV rollout in India is the lack of a major technology player backing the ecosystem. Globally, there are predominantly two main technologies to offer Mobile TV services — MediaFlo developed by Qualcomm and Nokia-backed DVB-H platform. But these technologies are facing an uncertain future as both Qualcomm and Nokia have given up on their respective platforms.
While Nokia had sold off its DVB-H unit to Wipro in 2009, Qualcomm recently palmed off its MediaFlo business in the US to AT&T as it could not find enough subscribers to sustain operations. Operators in Finland, Germany and Switzerland who started Mobile TV services using DVB-H technology had to shut down their service as they found the going tough. Though there are other technologies such as the ISDB-Tmm being used by NTT DoCoMo in Japan, these are highly localised platforms that are unlikely to work in India.
“Absence of global standards and large technology players in this segment makes the future look bleak in terms of developing network equipment and handsets or devices that support Mobile TV. Availability of a wide variety of affordable devices is crucial to the success of any wireless technology,” says a telecom operator.
Mobile players prefer to offer TV services using their existing 3G spectrum for which they paid billions of dollars rather than having to build out new infrastructure for Mobile TV. For example, Reliance Communications and Tata DoCoMo have partnered with Apalya to offer TV content to their 3G subscribers.
Final touches to policy
Despite the lack of interest among telecom players, the Ministry of Information & Broadcasting wants to bring Mobile TV in India and is giving final touches to the policy to auction air waves.
Possibly, it is betting on broadcasting companies to show some interest in buying spectrum in order to get access to the mobility market.
“For broadcasters, Mobile TV opens up a new distribution channel for live programmes on a multitude of new devices. This could both complement and act as a competitor to the main living-room TV, with potential advertising and premium subscription revenue gains. However, with a long list of challenges to be overcome, it remains a huge risk for television networks,” says Ovum's Renowden.
Not wanting to take a chance with the I&B Ministry's plan, the Department of Telecom, which is the custodian of all spectrum usage in the country, is in no mood to part with the 700 Mhz band.
Under the draft National Frequency Allocation Plan (NFAP) for the year 2011, prepared by the Wireless Planning & Coordination wing of the DoT, 700 Mhz has been earmarked for broadband services. Mobile TV has been relegated to using frequency band below 698 Mhz band.
If this is implemented, then the I&B Ministry will not only have to give back the about 40 units of spectrum allocated to Doordarshan in the 700 Mhz band but also look for a technology that works in the new band proposed in the NFAP.
Now that's a major challenge that the I&B Ministry will have to deal with before consumers can hope to watch TV channels on mobile devices.
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