(4 November 2006 6:00 pm)

MUMBAI: France based comunications services provider Alcatel and Samsung Electronics have signed an agreement to develop mobile handsets compatible with the evolution of the DVB-H standard in the S-Band. This is part of Alcatel’s Unlimited Mobile TV solution.

The two parties will collaborate on interoperability testing in order to deliver a seamless end-to-end solution to operators and a high quality Mobile TV service to end-users. Both companies will support the standardization process of this solution in the DVB Forum undertaken in the DVB-SSP (Satellite Services for Portable devices) Ad-Hoc Group, and join forces to market their combined solution. In a first step, this agreement covers Europe, where the S-band spectrum is available today.

The solution in the S-Band allows complete territory coverage for Mobile TV at the scale of a country or even a continent, including inside buildings. Besides, this solution is compatible with DVB-H in UHF, which also enables the development of dual-mode UHF/ S-Band Mobile TV terminals.

Samsung senior VP Kwang Suk Hyun says, "Samsung values its new cooperation with Alcatel for handsets in the S-Band, as it opens the door to a significant new business opportunity for Samsung in Europe. S-Band is a solution of choice in Europe for Mobile TV deployment and Samsung intends to be a major player in this business."

Alcatel’s mobile broadcast activities president Olivier Coste says, "We welcome Samsung as a new key stakeholder in the S-Band ecosystem for broadcast Mobile TV, as they enjoy a track record in fast Mobile TV handset development and go-to-market capability. Samsung’s endorsement of our hybrid mobile TV solution in the S-Band also demonstrates the attractiveness of this option for the Mobile TV industry at large."

The goal of Alcatel’s "Unlimited Mobile TV" solution is to make television available on mobile phones throughout rural and urban areas, including indoors, with a wide range of programming options and excellent image quality, regardless of the number of viewers simultaneously watching the same programme.

This universal broadcast coverage is possible thanks to the unique combination of a high-power geo-stationary satellite for cost-effective nationwide coverage and a network of low power repeaters, co-located with mobile base stations, to provide urban and indoor coverage. This innovative solution uses an evolution of the DVB-H standard in the 2 GHz band (S-Band), a telecom frequency band between 2.17 and 2.2 GHz associated with satellite usage, which is adjacent to the 3G/UMTS band. This 30MHz band is currently available all across Europe.