straight to the phone

– Land grabbing for mobile real estate

What if someone who doesn’t know any better declares that the current Direct to Mobile TV models are too complicated and instead of implementing DVB-H like Crown Castle Media did recently to avoid licensed cellular, why not wait for WiFi to figure out by itself what is it about anyway? Once it’s fully ubiquitous with Strict Conditional Access (CA), content providers should align.

To begin with, let’s agree that the man talks nonsense. WiFi buckled under the phalanx that needs to win in any confrontation. Crown Castle’s pioneering tests on L-spectrum in Pittsburgh aren’t the only ones delivering high-quality streaming directly 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. At home, Qualcomm subsidiary MediaFLO plans to deploy and operate multi-channel TV and audio programming across the US for 3G phones over Qualcomm-owned spectrum, bypassing existing cellular carriers.

Seeing the invasion of what was once exclusive cellular real estate, some cellular operators in the US are finally optimizing their existing 2.5G and 3G networks to enable multi-channel TV without the network carrier DVB-H, DMB T&S, DAB or FLO that accompanies it. However, it is clear that his efforts lack passionate intent. These are voice people, forced into uncharted waters and the unhappiness is palpable.

With plates obviously full, should the licensed establishment stay in their assigned seats, treat each other like gentlemen and not worry about trespassers? No, because something is still a friend. The bum hasn’t left the dinner table. The setup has been wrong ever since WiFi waited terribly for these gentlemen to bet $150 billion on 3G spectrum before walking into the room uninvited.

Oblivious to the clever argument, WiFi now goes well beyond Internet access to claim services it has no right to handle. With the complicity of users who should know better, a serious grassroots dominance has been established. In other words, we have a situation.

The young Chinese businessman we fired earlier for advocating streaming over Wi-Fi is making the rounds in Taiwan these days. Instead of investing in expensive IP TV or begging cellular operators to cooperate or fight for appropriate spectrum for DVB-H or DAB or DMB-S or DMB-T, he whispers plans to cover the country with wide-area WiFi access from new generation. points. If satellite and cable broadcasters let you access their content libraries, it promises riches for mobile phone users. Aware of Internet-related security issues, he promises excellent CA from his website using Open Mobile Alliance (OMA) compliant digital rights management (DRM) in Java applets that would be installed on mobile phones. Their own massive plans along with leveraged third-party WiFi means that enabled devices can access your stream from virtually any residential location, cafe, hotel, or restaurant in populated areas.

Frightened by the web’s easy reputation, broadcasters remain timid, though some have extensive Chinese-language content with no copyright-related bans. However, our indefatigable young friend cornered a niche content provider into allowing him to stream select TV shows only to mobile phones under strict CA. Tired of cell companies refusing to pay for content other than through one-sided revenue-sharing deals designed to squeeze the blood out of small ringtone providers, the distributor plans revenge.

So what can be done with this? Deconstruct any competitive matchup and one hits the turf for cause. The great technological battle of today is for the territory of the mobile phone. Hit hard by events since overpaying for 3G, the licensed cellular establishment reflects on the massive erosion of its property rights, the latest by broadcasters preparing to directly target cellular users. As if that wasn’t bad enough, disparaged content distributors are now planning to pummel telecommunications companies with WiFi.

Having ignored content as a source of revenue during his reign, telcos still dabble rather than seriously deploy and fight the wrong battle whenever an opportunity presents itself or a threat rears its head. The danger lies not in their being ignorant when the opportunity presented itself—after all, content became our headache only when the pipes widened—but in their continued refusal to sink our bones. We see recent cases of large shareholders in large telecommunications companies throwing in the towel and selling shares rather than experience an excruciating learning curve.

The supposed pedigree of our young Chinese anti-hero adds a dash of spice to an otherwise bland warning to telcos. It is rumored that he is the descendant of the largest hacking team in the region. By burning his illegal DVDs on ships anchored outside any territorial sea, they give a new relevance to the word ‘pirated’. If someone with this background can shore up their act, walk away from the family business and now, instead of making a Napster, focus on delivering content under strict CA using the latest technology to provide cable TV-like security to the Internet, surely it behooves American. and Asian telcos accept at least what is possibly their entire future.

But while the cable boys got their hands on telephony and broadcasters directly access mobile phones with the media, while young entrepreneurs plot to put AC applets on next-generation mobile phones to enable licensed streaming , the US and Asian telecom establishment outside of Japan, Korea and Hong Kong have yet to accept even voice over broadband let alone IP TV and streaming TV direct to mobile phones. Obsessed with the legacy, they continue to drive a Vespa on the eight lane broadband highway.

They do it inexcusably, in the face of success stories that should be encouraged rather than ignored. At the urging of its media-savvy chairman, Hong Kong’s PCCW ventured into IP TV in late 2003. Today, it’s the only success story in its less-than-stellar performance. Along with Internet access, but not VoIP, as that would be asking too much, PCCW’s IPTV offering swept the territory, easily outpacing the moribund cable TV licensee. Today content providers are rushing to sign on to PCCW and Rupert Murdoch’s Star TV recently announced its switch from Wharf Cable to PCCW broadband.

Telecommunications companies easily forget that the world no longer revolves around them. They finally seem to reflect on IP TV, but the battle lines have already moved away from televisions and reimagined within mobile phones. At best, intermediaries between content owners and viewers, if telcos can’t rise to the occasion, technology and regulation no longer prevent others from doing so. The paying consumer doesn’t give a damn if you can watch your football game via WiFi, DVB-H, DMB-T, S or 3G as long as you watch it at the lowest possible cost with the best possible quality and you don’t always have to run home to catch him. The owner of the intellectual property is also ultimately indifferent to mechanics as long as he receives the best price with full protection of his property rights. Perhaps losing feudal rights to the mobile phone is what is needed for cellular operators to finally wake up and become the primary facilitator between content owners and the mobile viewer.

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