AfterDawn: News

Verizon Wireless offers mobile phone TV

Verizon Wireless has introduced the first commercial mobile television service in 20 states in the U.S., which includes full length programs and quality that is similar to regular television. A Verizon / Vodafone venture will charge customers a $15/month subscription fee for the service which includes 8 channels, broadcasting content 24 hours a day. It was developed by Qualcomm's MediaFlo.

Verizon has been experimenting with video content in an effort to make up for revenue lost as mobile phone calls become cheaper. Verizon Wireless is the second largest mobile phone provider in the United States, and so far its video services have not received much attention from customers, due to its low quality and high prices.



The first phone to support MediaFlo is the U620 from Samsung. It is being sold for $199, or $149.99 for customers who sign a two-year contract. Verizon plans to add another phone, from LG Electronics Inc. in a matter of weeks. Available channels include a feeds from MTV and programming from CBS, NBC, ESPN, Fox, Nickelodeon and Comedy Central.

Source:
Reuters

Written by: James Delahunty @ 1 Mar 2007 19:33

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• 8 comments

• georgeluv

  damn for 15 bucks a month it needs to have better channels than the ones that i can get for free with a small handheld TV, come on! Nickelodeon? come on thats wasted on anyone without kids. the only way i can see 8 mobile chanels being worth 15 bucks is if they are all premium chanels and have no comericals. untill then ill stick with downloading them and just putting them on my micro sd card.
  
  oh yeh, and verizon loves charging airtime for literaly everything, they charge airtime for use of the net even though its extra and they charge airtime for use of the nav prog even though it costs extra (basicly making both useless unless you almost never use them, only use them at night, or have unlimited minutes), and im sure they are going to try some totaly lame sceme where they charge air time for tv too. verizon, you suck. pirating premium tv and putting it on my sd card costs me no air time to watch and is free.

  2.3.2007 06:23 #1

• veyron

  They charge an arm and a leg for every service. You want internet add 15 you want gps add 15. Crappy tv add 15.
  Not sure if gps is 15 or not. But, still they need cheaper packages to attract anyone. Don't they realize how easy it is to load videos you want onto your phone for free!

  2.3.2007 16:41 #2

• joejo

  I guess I am new at this but how do you download premium chanels and put them on a sd card. I can't even get a movie to download correctly. the graphics is horid

  3.3.2007 15:43 #3

• veyron

  joejo-
  Your definitely at the correct site to have your questions answered.
  Files need to be converted to the format playable on your phone. Search
  in the forums for the best programs and pointers.

  3.3.2007 16:13 #4

• joejo

  What programs would you suggest? If you have or know of any pointers I would greatly appreciate the advice.

  4.3.2007 07:13 #5

• georgeluv

  joejo~
  
  if you are in america use a gnutella2 client like limewire or shareaza to download the eps (make sure you turn off sharing). if you live outside the us use Bit Torrent.
  
  once you have the video you need to convert it to whatever viudeo format your phone uses. you need to look up what video format your phone uses then download a program that will convert an XviD encoded .avi to whatever your phone uses. it will probably be mp4 or 3gp. pspvideo9 does both fine i think. if your phone has no fast forward button then youll need to chop them up into 5 minute fragments.
  
  then just load them onto your sd card properly and your done.

  4.3.2007 08:23 #6

• Junito

  Yes, verizon charges an arm and a leg for any service. When are they going to catch up to European and/or Asian nations? by which they provide most of the service as an inclusive package. For me, I use the phone for one and only one reason, to make phone calls. If you want to watch video on road get an Ipod. Not only can you watch what you want when you want it, but also is free. I'm still waiting for the day where I can make free phone calls to land lines. Hey, it should be free, we pay more for the cell phone service than we do for a regular land line.

  4.3.2007 15:36 #7

• ZzeusS

  It's hard to see the draw. For 15 bucks a month you get unlimited data service anyway. If your smartphone can access websites you can get plenty of video feeds. Why pay for anything else?

  5.3.2007 04:13 #8