This was foreshadowed last week, but this article has some more details. Four operators (Orange, Vodafone, Telefonica and 3) will team up to trial the service in Bristol using idle 3G radio spectrum. Apparently this was part of the 2000 3G auction which saw carriers pay 22.5 billion pounds ($42 billion) for spectrum, and was intended to handle the overflow of 3G data services—which so far haven’t come close to approaching capacity, let alone overflowing.
“Operators told us that consumers will not pay more than 10 euros a month, and probably less. This technology will break even if 35 percent of subscribers take mobile TV for 5 euros per month,” said Jon Hambidge, vice president marketing at U.S.-based IPWireless which provides the TDtv technology…It claims that operators need almost twice as many subscribers to break even with competing mobile TV technology DVB-H, which is being trialed in the Oxford area by Telefonica unit O2.”
The cost comparison includes the cost of radio spectrum, which in TDtv’s case is pretty much free because the carriers have already written off the cost of buying the relevant spectrum. The service can offer “17 high quality TV sports and film channels or up to 50 lower quality TV news channels”, and the trial will be with content from MobiTV.