14 DAY TRIAL // The debate on mobile TV is far from over and, as the best research method on the potential success of a certain technology is testing the opinion of those who may benefit from it, Nokia decided to asses the public interest for this service.
An extensive project, reuniting companies like Nokia, Sonera, MTV, Digita, Elisa and YLE (The Finnish National Television Society) is currently on progress in Helsinki, involving 500 subjects and aiming at testing TV broadcast to third generation mobile phones.
The broadcast began yesterday, and the study is aiming to assess, apart from the technical aspects, the users' reaction and interest for this sort of service.
The participants were selected from among the subscribers of two mobile telephony companies, Sonera and Elisa, and they will be able to receive real time TV and radio shows, the terminal chosen for the test being the recently launched Nokia 7710, equipped with a special TV receiver.
The phone has also an Internet connection, so the customers can get extra data on the TV shows they're watching. Nokia 7710 is equipped with a 65,000 color wide touch-screen (640x320 pixels), a stereo audio player and advanced video features, such as recording and playing video content.
The subjects can watch local TV stations (MTV, YLE and Nelonen), but can also connect to international stations, such as CNN, BBC World, Euronews, ViVa Plus and Fashion TV. The testing will end June 20, 2005.
A similar study took place in Finland, at the end of 2004, and the participants preferred access to sports, weather, news, entertainment, but also to comedy shows or soap-operas. This type of TV transmission complements the classic television, its main advantage obviously being its mobility.