NEW MOBILE TV TECHNOLOGY TO BE TESTED IN U.K.

Britain’s largest mobile phone operators are teaming up to test a technology that combines an unused part of the broadcast spectrum with 3G systems to deliver broadcast television to mobile phone users, published reports in the U.K. said today (Tuesday). Called Integrated Mobile Broadcast (IMB), the technology solves the problem of degraded reception when several cellphone users attempt to access the same videos in the same place. The trial, which involves the O2, Orange, and Vodafone mobile phone operators, is expected to last from October to January and will be limited to west London and Slough, about 20 miles farther west. All three companies issued statements endorsing the test and pledging to work together to develop high-quality mobile TV services. They will be working with IPWireless, which will monitor the performance of the IMB service, Ericsson, which will provide the integrated platform for it, and Streamezzo, which will provide the user interface.