And all is good, though "European first" claim may not be accurate.
Huawei, Qualcomm and Teleom Italia have completed what they say is Europe's first Multimedia Broadcast Multicast Service (MBMS) field trial.The technology uses existing UMTS/HSPA cellular networks to offer broadcast interactive multimedia services like mobile TV- in much the same way as Qualcomm's MediaFLO platform.
But Orange and T-Mobile are trialing MBMS-based TDtv mobile TV services in London right now (not to mention 3, Orange, Telefonica and Vodafone conducting trials in 2006), so we're not sure about TIM's "Europe's first" claim.
TIM and its partners (Huawei provided the MBMS 'solution', Qualcomm the necessary chipsets) say they achieved network speeds of 256 Kbps and "greater service reception and capacity than expected".
In addition to MediaFLO and MBMS, other broadcast mobile media technologies include DVB-H, DMB and the like.
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Yu Chengdong, president of Huawei's wireless product line, said: "MBMS not only can provide mobile TV services but it can also carry other mobile data broadcasting services, such as mobile advertising and newspapers."
