NEW ORLEANS – Not until 4G wireless networks are in place will we see mobile video really gain traction, according to a number of engineers working on various models who presented their recent findings at one of the final sessions at the National Cable Telecommunications Association Cable Show here in New Orleans.
Motorola’s Sheriff Popoola used his time to outline the potential in femtocells, which sounds like some sort of comic book girl robots, but are actually miniature cellular base stations that would reside in customer homes, connecting to a cable company’s network and provide a rather enhanced wireless signal in the home.
“This is the most exciting development in home networking since the arrival of WiFi,” said Popoola.
The low-power, self configuring units mesh with dual mode handsets that work on a mobile company’s cellular network – and within the home’s wireless network, using the cable company’s wireline network for voice or data backhaul. It will bring true broadband to the wireless handset.
Femtocells also provide a pretty fat pipe (7.2 Mbps) within the home for connectivity, and will eventually enable people to move content from their PVR to their PC or PDA, says Popoola.
Technically, femtocells, when they are ready for prime time, are an “over-the-top play,” he adds, in that they will simply provide a way to ride on the cable or other broadband ISP infrastructure.
But if they get as popular as many hope in providing broadband to the handheld, this could be an issue for network owners.
If there are eventually millions of new femtocells riding on the cable network, they will surely impact operator capabilities, perhaps requiring wireline network upgrades. “And who pays for that?” asked Popoola. The cell companies, he predicted, “will have to consider at least going to some sort of agreement with the ISPs.”
While any launch date has yet to happen, Popoola said Moto has been testing the technology – to much success – over the past six to nine months,
Timothy Burke, vice-president of strategic technologies with Liberty Global, called mobile TV ”just a lot of hype,” noting that “forecasts vary wildly.” Some companies predict 350 million mobile TV users by the end of 2012 while others call for less than half of that.
But are those counting including broadcast, unicast, paid subscribers, free users, or what? “Be wary of how those numbers are arrived at,” he said.
“The business case is still getting worked out for mobile TV,” he said, adding the greatest number of mobile video users are in Japan and Korea – who get TV on their handsets for free, thanks to a hyper-competitive market.
In North America, data plans consumers pay for – and the cost of video delivery by call companies – make it very expensive to do mobile video – which means the boat will remain in dry-dock for as while longer.
Another part of the challenge inhibiting mobile content right now are the more than a dozen different wireless video standards. While Europe and others seem to have settled in DVB-H, other, newer standards that are more capable in a 4G environment are coming, said Burke.
– Greg O’Brien
