14 DAY TRIAL // Having a mobile phone with 3G capabilities and don't know what to do with it? Well, there is a slight chance you might also like TV and, if this is your case, you might want to head over a Vodafone store and get yourself a number on their network via a pre-paid card or by signing a service agreement for a period of your choice. What is the big fuss about this TV thingie I'm writing about here?
Well, if you are a TV maniac, as many of my friends are (not my case here :) ), you can have the time of your life watching the 22 new TV channels added to the Vodafone live streaming broadcasts, of course if you are one of their customers. There is a catch though, as every time something sounds too good to be true-they are available only if you reside somewhere in the land of the kangaroos, Australia.
The new channels listing will provide the mobile TV users access to ABC (Australian Broadcasting Service), Australia's public TV channel, to SBS (Special Broadcasting Service) that will offer the mobile audience multicultural TV shows and to some of the programs everyone has heard of, programs like Mythbusters and South Park. Again, there seems to be a catch to this wonderful news: the viewers will also get to lay there eyes on in-program advertising, something unheard of before.
Together with the ones above, the future Vodafone subscribers will also be able to watch Sky News Business, Sky News UK, BBC World and Fashion TV, but I'm still wondering about what Australian should want to watch news from Britain? And if that person exists, I am very curios about the reasons.
I suppose you have already made up your mind and you know this ain't coming free, so here it is: if you decide to get the TV channels from your TV set to your 3G enabled mobile phone (these are the only ones compatible with Vodafone's TV service), you must get ready to pay for it.
If one wants a multi-channel monthly subscription pack, the price will be 8 $ but it's well worth it considering the 128kbps streams offered nowadays by Vodafone, twice the quality of other mobile TV streaming solutions offered by many other companies in the past.
Don't get that excited though because the quality of the image hasn't yet equaled the one of the classic TV set but there is enough time ahead so the mobile carriers have a chance to win the battle or at least get the mobile television to the same quality as what everybody has at home.