Alcatel-Lucent (Euronext Paris and NYSE: ALU) today announced the availability of its managed Mobile Interactive TV service in the Asian Pacific Region. The solution will allow content and service providers to address the growing demand for Interactive Mobile TV services by offering a differentiating user-centric experience to their customers based on best in class technology. The managed business model will enable them to introduce the new service quickly, cost-effectively and at low risk.

Alcatel-Lucent will deploy, host and operate the end-to-end solution whilst content and service providers will focus on developing service marketing programs and enhancing user satisfaction. The service also offers content providers an open environment for content aggregation to easily create compelling “interactive made-for-mobile channels”.

The service is providing a high quality experience for users thanks to ergonomic and intuitive navigation interfaces such as fast channel zapping and can accommodate a diverse range of handset configurations and network delivery methods such as those that are 3G circuit switched, packet switched or broadcasted.

“Mobile TV is a reality today and is gaining momentum in Asia. With more than 80 multimedia services in operation worldwide, Alcatel-Lucent enjoys a leadership position in the booming mobile TV market and is ideally positioned to help its customers deliver a user-centric experience for their subscribers. The Alcatel-Lucent’s managed Mobile Interactive TV service gives content and service providers a fantastic opportunity to deliver revenue generating entertainment services to their customers”, said Frederic Rose, Head of Alcatel-Lucent’s activities in Asia Pacific.

Alcatel (Paris: CGEP.PA and NYSE: ALA) announced today the successful demonstration of Europe’s first broadcast of live TV channels on mobile handsets in S-band. The demonstration took place in Alcatel’s UK premises. It is using the new DVB-SH standard (Satellite services for Handhelds), which is currently being drafted by the DVB Project. To perform this demonstration, Alcatel was assisted by UK broadcasters Sky, ITV and BBC.

Representatives from European mobile operators, TV broadcasters, industry analyst firms and regulatory bodies attending this demonstration were able to enjoy high quality images displayed on SAGEM myMobileTV handsets. These terminals are using the S-band telecom frequency between 2.17GHz and 2.20GHz, which is adjacent to the 3G/UMTS band. 30MHz of spectrum is currently available all across Europe and in other major regions in the world.

DVB-SH is a new technology targeting the S-band. DVB-SH is a related standard to DVB-H. With DVB-SH technology, Mobile TV signals can be broadcast from satellites as well as from terrestrial transmitters directly to handhelds. DVB-SH handhelds can be designed in such a way that they become compatible with DVB-H so that both standards can be received in one end-user terminal.

In addition, Alcatel demonstrated two possible key technical features using the DVB-SH standard. Reception Antenna Diversity, a feature using two antennas inside the same mobile device, enables improvements in the signal quality under difficult conditions. Furthermore, improved Time Interleaving overcomes fading impairment in mobility conditions. The significant quality enhancement was demonstrated by implementing these DVB-SH features.

On the occasion of this demonstration, Professor Ulrich Reimers, Chairman of the Technical Module of DVB Project declared: “I am delighted to have been given the opportunity to witness a live Mobile TV demonstration in the S-band even before the new Mobile TV standard has been finally designed. Within the DVB -Project, we have decided to give that standard a new name – DVB-SH – digital video broadcast from satellite for handhelds. DVB-SH is a perfect complement to other standards, such as DVB-H, which is typically using UHF frequencies but is capable of using the L-band. Thus DVB-SH may have a significant impact on the global Mobile TV industry.”

Olivier Coste, President of Alcatel’s mobile broadcast activities concluded: “Quality of Service is essential for operators to attract and retain Mobile TV users. Today, we demonstrated that high quality live Mobile TV using the S-band works. This can be up and running commercially very soon. With the additional benefits of universal indoor and countrywide coverage, the fundamentals of our solution are already solid enough to enable operators to profit from sustainable Mobile TV market growth thanks to the S-band.”

3 to trial live broadcast TV over mobile

3, Ireland’s mobile media network, is pleased to announce that it has been awarded a licence by ComReg to trial broadcast TV services over mobile handsets. The licence takes effect immediately and runs for one year.

DVB-H is a technology specifically developed for broadcasting live television channels via mobile handsets. Broadcast mobile TV transmitted via DVB-H has the potential to bring a number of consumer benefits including:

* Access to many live TV channels.
* An enhanced customer experience through new functionality such as interactive TV.
* High-quality pictures and sound without delays, freezing or buffering.
* An efficient delivery system which reduces battery consumption.

Robert Finnegan, 3′s Managing Director commented: “3 Italy was first in Europe to launch broadcast TV over mobile, so as a Group we are already leading the development of this new technology. Ireland has a high take-up of digital TV services compared to many EU countries with 42% of all households using digital TV services. DVB-H brings the benefits of Digital TV to mobile. Mobile TV is important to 3 and to the Irish market, as consumers demand more sophisticated mobile services.”

The Minister for Communications, Marine and Natural Resources, Mr Noel Dempsey, TD, said: “I welcome all developments in the digital television area. It is particularly important that Ireland rolls out a digital terrestrial television network in the coming years and that the full range of digital services become available to the Irish citizen.”

3′s sister company in Italy launched its DVB-H service called WalkTV earlier this year and is already broadcasting mobile TV to a large audience, with 140,000 customers signing up in just six weeks.

3′s DVB-H tests in Ireland follow the success of a range of TV content available on 3 from Barclays Premiership highlights and the best of Father Ted, to 3′s own music channel hosted by Tom Dunne.