Mobile video's star rises: as West follows East, mobile video becomes a hot new service

Telecommunications Americas, July-August, 2004 by R. Brough Turner

Mobile video is frequently seen as a future strategy--something that will become significant once 3G networks are widely deployed. Substantial video offers, including live video calling, are becoming available on newly deployed 3G networks in Japan, Korea and portions of Europe, but some video services can be launched today on 2.5G networks. As with many mobile services, Asia is leading the way, giving the rest of the world early indications of what works. If you have not already launched a video service, now is the time to reconsider.

There are at least two ways to get started without a large incremental investment. First, video clips can easily be included in the range of content available for download. Popular subjects include sports, music, news, movie previews, horoscopes and adult content. Even on a GPRS network, sending or down-loading a five-to-15-second video clip can be completed within 30 to 40 seconds. Multimedia handsets are available, albeit at a premium, from all major handset vendors. So services can be offered to early adopters, even on 2.5G networks.

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As MMS (multimedia messaging service) is deployed, video can be included in the range of MMS options. Alternately, e-mail can be used to pass video messages. Again, five-to-15-second video clips are typical with MMS or e-mail, but there is also the option of subscriber-generated content. In other words, just as subscribers use camera phones to take pictures, mobile video handsets allow users to record short video clips. Vodafone K.K. (Japan) was a pioneer with its Sha-mail (still images) and then its Movie Sha-mail services. As of March 2004, Vodafone K.K. had over 3 million Movie Sha-mail subscribers--a 20-percent adoption rate among its 15 million total subscribers. Since late 2003, it has been offering the Sanyo V801SA handset for global roaming as it provides both Sha-mail and Movie Sha-mail access in any area that supports WCDMA or GPRS.

As with SMS or any messaging service, a critical mass of subscribers is necessary to ensure commercial success, so the top priorities must be interoperable handsets with compatible video capabilities and interconnection with other operators to maximize the number of people that can exchange video messages.

The good news is that the components for initial mobile video applications--handsets, content servers and content managers--are available today and at least the infrastructure components are shared with other communications applications. A modest beginning today provides the opportunity to work out content relationships and test subscriber reaction to both handsets and video content.

Evolution

There are four video capabilities that support a wide range of video applications. Video download and video messaging using MMS or e-mail are the first; video streaming and live video calling follow.

Video streaming is possible on 2.5G networks, although data rates of 30 kbps to 40 kbps limit content to relatively low resolution and low frame rates. However, this may be adequate for connecting to surveillance cameras in the home or elsewhere. 3G networks support high-performance video streaming, up to and including live TV. The advantage of video streaming is the ability to support arbitrarily long video programs not just 10-second clips. This expands the range of applications to serious news, extended sports coverage, celebrity interviews and so on.

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Of course, if the goal is actual broadcast TV, it is more efficient to use broadcast technology than precious mobile phone bandwidth. Combined handsets are now available in Japan that support both 2.5G/3G telephony and broadcast TV reception. Examples are the NEC V601N and the Toshiba V401T, both being promoted by Vodafone K.K.

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The ultimate video service is live video calling, a.k.a. video telephony. This requires 3G data rates and a low-latency QoS guarantee. Today, DoCoMo leads the world in live video calling with roughly 2 million live-video-capable handsets in service. SK Telecom (in Korea) and "3" (a.k.a. Hutchinson 3G, in Italy, UK, Sweden, Austria, Hong Kong and Australia) have also launched live calling services. All these services are based on the 3G-324M standard. 3G-324M video services get the required QoS by using circuit-switched data, typically at 64 kbps.

Video Applications

The broader view of mobile video includes the range of applications being deployed, tested or proposed. Video on demand and video news alerts are already popular. Following on the success of ring tones and logos, video phone personalization appears to be a winner. M1 in Singapore offers local celebrities delivering greetings and messages. There are also high hopes for video quizzes and games, based on the success of such services in the SMS domain. At mobilekom austria there's the usual set of news and sports services plus live video feeds from traffic cameras.

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The ability to receive broadcast TV on a mobile video handset is attracting attention in Japan, so there appears to be demand for this application however it is delivered.