Direct to Mobile - The Turf Wars


By Braham Singh


Direct to Handset - Land grab for mobile real estate

What if someone not knowing any better, declared current Direct to Mobile TV models too much hassle and rather than deploy DVB-H like Crown Castle Media recently did to bypass licensed cellular, why not just wait for WiFi to sort itself out which it's about to anyway? Once it's seriously ubiquitous with stringent conditional access (CA), content providers should line up.

For starters, let's agree the man's talking nonsense. WiFi'd buckle under the phalanx it needs vanquished in any face-off. Crown Castle's pioneering Pittsburgh trials over L-spectrum isn't the only one out offering high quality broadcast direct to mobile phones.

BT Livetime and Virgin Broadcasting are preparing European mobile phones for prime time via a DAB (Digital Audio Broadcast) variant on steroids that does TV and has interactive functionality. Other pilots are underway in Berlin and Helsinki. Back home, Qualcomm subsidiary MediaFLO plans to deploy and operate a US wide multi-channel TV and audio programming to 3G phones at 700MHz, a spectrum owned by Qualcomm, bypassing existing cellular operators.

Seeing encroachment on what was exclusive cellular real estate, some cellular operators in the USA are finally optimizing their existing 2.5G and 3G networks to enable multi-channel TV without the accompanying DVB-H, DMB T&S;, DAB or FLO network operator. However, it's clear their efforts lack passionate intent. These are voice folk, forced into uncharted waters and the unhappiness is palpable.

With plates evidently full, should the licensed establishment remain in their allotted seats, deal with each other like gentlemen and not worry about gatecrashers? No, because something's still amiss. The bum hasn't left the dinner table. The setting's been awry since WiFi appallingly waited for these gentlemen to ante up $15B for 3G spectrum before walking into the room uninvited.

Oblivious to intelligent argument WiFi now moves way beyond internet access to stake claim on services it has no right to handle. Abetted by users who should know better, it's established serious grass roots preponderance. In other words, we have a situation.

The young Chinese entrepreneur we dismissed earlier for espousing broadcast over WiFi is doing the rounds in Taiwan these days. Instead of investing in expensive IP TV or begging cellular operators into cooperating or slugging it out for appropriate DVB-H or DAB or DMB-S or DMB-T spectrum he whispers plans to blanket the country with new generation wide-area WiFi access points. If satellite and cable broadcasters let him into their content libraries, he promises riches from mobile phone users. Aware of Internet related security issues he pledges excellent CA from his website using Open Mobile Alliance (OMA) compliant Digital Rights Management (DRM) on Java applets that would drop into mobile phones. His own massive plans along with leveraged third party WiFi means enabled devices can access his broadcast pretty much from any residential location, coffee shop, hotel or restaurant in the populated areas.

Spooked at the web's easy reputation, broadcasters remain shy although some own extensive Chinese content with no IP related proscriptions. Our indefatigable young friend however corralled a niche content provider to allow him web cast select TV shows only to mobile phones under stringent CA. Tired of cellular companies refusing to pay for content other than through one-sided revenue share agreements designed to wring blood from small ring tone suppliers, the distributor plans revenge.

So, what is one to make of this? Deconstruct any competitive face off and one hits turf as cause. Today's big technology battle is for turf in the mobile handset. Hit hard by events since it overpaid for 3G, the licensed cellular establishment mulls over massive erosion to its property rights, the latest by broadcasters readying to directly address cellular users. As if that's not bad enough, dissed content distributors now plan to bludgeon Telcos with WiFi.

Having ignored content as a revenue source during their reign, the Telcos still dabble instead of seriously deploying and fight the wrong battle every time opportunity beckons or a threat rears its head. Peril does not lie in that they were ignorant when the opportunity arose, after all content became our headache only when the pipes broadened, but in their ongoing refusal to bone up. We see recent instances of large shareholders in the bigger telecos throwing in the towel and sell holdings rather than live through an excrutiating learning curve.

Our young Chinese anti-hero's alleged pedigree adds a dash of spice to an otherwise bland warning to Telcos. Rumor has it that he's the scion of the largest piracy outfit in the region. Burning their illegal DVDs on boats anchored outside any territorial waters, they give the word 'pirated' a new relevance. If someone from this background can shore up his act, walk away from the family business and now instead of doing a Napster focus on delivering content under strict CA using the latest technology to bring cable TV type security to the Internet, surely it behooves American and Asian Telcos to at least come to terms with what only constitutes possibly their entire future.

But while the cable guys got their act together on telephony and broadcasters directly access cell phones with media, while young entrepreneurs plot to drop CA applets into new breed mobile phones to enable licensed broadcast, the American and Asian telecom establishment outside of Japan, Korea and Hong Kong has yet to come to terms with even voice over broadband let alone IP TV and TV broadcast directly to hand phones. Obsessed with legacy, they continue riding a Vespa on the eight lane broadband highway.

They do so unforgivably, in the face of success stories that should hearten instead of being ignored. At the behest of their media obsessed Chairman, PCCW of Hong Kong ventured into IP TV in late 2003. Today, it is the only success story in their otherwise less than stellar performance. Bundled with Internet access, but not VoIP as that would be asking too much, PCCW's IP TV offering swept the territory overtaking the moribund Cable TV licensee with ease. Today, content providers scramble to sign up PCCW and Rupert Murdoch's Star TV recently announced its move from Wharf Cable to PCCW broadband.

Telcos easily forget the world no longer revolves around them. They finally appear to ponder IP TV but battle lines have already moved away from TV set tops and redrawn inside mobile phones. At best middle men between owners of content and the viewers, if the Telco's don't rise to the occasion, technology and regulation no longer prevent others from doing so. The paying consumer doesn't care a fig if he gets to see his football match over WiFi, DVB-H, DMB-T, S, or 3G as long as he views it at the least possible cost with the best possible quality and does not always have to rush home to catch it. The intellectual property owner too is ultimately blas? about the mechanics as long as he receives top dollar with full protection to his ownership rights. Maybe losing feudal rights to the mobile phone is what it takes for cellular operators to finally wake up and become the prime enabler between content owners and the mobile viewer.


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