Wireless carriers enlist help in fighting broadcasters over mobile TV services

Broadcasters may well think TV on mobile handsets should have to follow certain broadcast regulations, but wireless operators say otherwise, and now the latter group has another fighter in its corner. The Canadian Wireless Telecommunications Association enlisted the help of wireless telecom consultancy Lemay-Yates Associates, which concludes in a 17-page report that mobile TV is "accessed and delivered over the public Internet." Lemay-Yates explains that the use of the Internet to deliver wireless data services and applications to consumers has been common practice for several years, and mobile video services are only an extension of that evolution. The video signals aren’t broadcast over the entire wireless carrier network, but instead the wireless subscriber requests the signal and pulls it down to the handset. "The mobile TV access and delivery processes are essentially the same as video streaming technology that has been in use for many years over wireline Internet connections. Essentially, the role of the mobile carrier’s network in delivering mobile TV services is similar to the role played by an Internet Service Provider (ISP) network in a typical Internet application such as video streaming," reads Mobile TV Technology Discussion, the Lemay-Yates report. "he use of the wireless network for the last mile is conceptually the same as the use of twisted pair networks, coaxial cable networks or Wi-Fi networks for connection of personal computers to the Internet," the report states. The Canadian Association of Broadcasters (CAB) weighs into the technical debate, agreeing the Internet is being used to "push programming signals from one back-end provider to another" such as the case with cable operators’ and satellite TV providers’ use of satellite and/or fibre. The CAB adds, however, "subscribers will not use the Internet to access these signals." The broadcasters’ association suggests the wireless carriers can’t claim their service is delivered over the Internet, and therefore protected from broadcast regulations, because the all mobile TV content isn’t available to all wireless subscribers. "In other words, if a wireless operator offers only a limited subset of video or audio signals, then the user/subscriber is not actually accessing the Internet. Nor is the operator then acting as an ISP - a transparent carrier of content. Rather, it is acting as a , i.e. as a gatekeeper and value-added reseller of broadcast signals. "Based on the descriptions provided by Rogers, Bell and Telus, it is clear that these services do not operate on an open network. They would employ a system with a closed, proprietary architecture at either end," states the CAB. Despite the criticism of the wireless carriers’ offering as an Internet service, the CAB believes that mobile TV should be allowed in Canada, but only within an appropriate regulatory framework. It suggests a two-year experimental exemption order for mobile TV service would give the commission the time to determine the impact of the service on traditional broadcasters. Refusing to enter the technical debate of whether mobile TV should be defined as a broadcasting service or an Internet application, CHUM and Global Television Network agree with the CAB that going slow is the best approach to mobile TV. CHUM writes, "Going forward, it is evident that one opportunity for growth in the broadcast sector will come from new types of services, such as those using Internet or wireless technologies. However, these services need to be introduced in a manner that poses the least threat to traditional broadcasting."

Wireless carriers enlist help in fighting broadcasters over mobile TV services

News | 09/23/2005 4:00 am EDT

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