IPWireless today announced TDtv, a new mobile TV standard. In tandem, Sprint Nextel announced a $10 million investment in IPWireless. TDtv operates in the universal unpaired 3G spectrum bands that are available across Europe and Asia at 1900MHz and 2010MHz.
With TDtv, UMTS operators can deliver up to 50 channels of TV for standard mobile phone screens, or 15 higher quality QVGA channels, all in their existing 5MHz of unpaired 3G spectrum. For operators that have 10MHz of spectrum in any of the bands supported, the solution can deliver twice the number of channels or increase the quality of their service offerings.
One of the major benefits of TDtv is that it multicasts so any number of subscribers can watch something and it uses no more bandwidth. That should help keep the costs down.