Getting Ready for Primetime: 2006 Mobile Video Year in Review

Cable operators Time Warner, Comcast, Cox, and Advance/Newhouse have their eye on the "quadruple play" by offering mobile wireless services of their own. The four have formed a joint venture with Sprint, but will market services under their own brands.

New mobile broadcast video technologies like DVB-H (Digital Video Broadcasting–Handheld) and Qualcomm’s MediaFLO will begin to enter the marketplace to help make mobile television commonplace in the United States. Multicast technologies, like DVB-H, are far better suited to handle vast amounts of live television streaming and video downloads. Verizon plans on launching with MediaFLO in 2007, and Sprint is currently testing it. T-Mobile is conducting trials with HiWire, Modeo, and MediaFLO.

The rollout of WiMAX networks, the wireless version of broadband, will also be a factor in the continued adoption of mobile video. "WiMAX has a huge potential for delivering a TV experience over a wireless network. Much better than existing networks," says Johansson. In mid-2006 Sprint was the first wireless carrier to announce it would build a WiMAX network over the next few years at a cost of $3 billion.

Mobile video may just be in its pilot season, but even by the most conservative estimates, when it finally goes primetime in the eyes of the consumers, its potential is virtually unlimited.