A small Australian service provider wants to cut a deal with Asian carriers to bring mobile television to consumers.
Goconnect.com, a Melbourne-based Internet service provider, is hoping to reverse its fortunes by delivering video content using its patented video delivery software, GoTrek, to the Hong Kong owners of GPRS-enabled (general packet radio services) pocket PCs.
Goconnect chairman Richard Li was in Hong Kong last week to persuade local mobile network operators to offer its GoTrek technology to subscribers. The xDA is the only GPRS-enabled pocket PC available in Hong Kong.
The odds against Goconnect are high; even if carriers such as CSL were to agree, there are less than 3,000 xDA owners in Hong Kong, and not all of them subscribe to GPRS.
Most xDA owners are corporate users who use the device mainly for e-mail.
Still, Mr Li believes that being able to watch smooth, full-motion video, and not jerky, frame-by-frame images, on a portable device will be a strong consideration for carriers.