Jolon and Oriental Pearl take the lead in offering new service ahead of Olympics while telecoms firms await 3G decision
Sports lovers in China can look forward to watching the 2008 Olympics on mobile phones and other devices following Beijing Jolon Digital Media's launch of mobile television last week, even as doubts remain on when third-generation mobile-phone operators will be able to offer similar services.
Broadcasters Jolon and Shanghai-listed Oriental Pearl Group have taken a lead in mobile television services in Beijing and Shanghai as telecommunications operators such as China Mobile and China Telecom wait for the government to resolve 3G licensing and standards issues before they can build the necessary networks. The low speed of second-generation mobile-phone technology does not permit video streaming, central to mobile television.
'We won't call our service mobile TV because our digital programmes, be it voice or video, can be displayed on many different terminals such as MP3, MP4, personal digital assistants and mobile handsets,' a Jolon executive said.
Even so, Beijing citizens can now use Lenovo's ET980 handset, which costs more than 5,000 yuan, to watch two television channels, CCTV and Beijing TV Channel 1, as well as listen to 12 radio music programmes.
Lenovo plans two cheaper handsets based on digital audio broadcasting (DAB) technology and the company said other handset vendors including Huawei, ZTE, Techfaith and Cellon were also making handsets based on DAB.
Jolon, the digital media arm of Beijing Radio Station, was formed in January last year to build and operate a DAB network serving Beijing with an 80 million yuan investment budget. Wang Liang, head of Beijing Radio Station, said it would put information such as public service announcements, traffic information and entertainment news on its platform from January as part of the build-up to the Olympics.
