In spite of the fact that we all want bigger, better and faster, haven’t you for just a second wondered why the same person with the 50 inch television in their home wants to download television and video on their mobile phone – even if they have the largest screen available on the market?

 

With mobile TV just now taking off in the US, service providers have much to learn from the experiences of mobile TV users in Europe. Tellabs (News - Alert) recently commissioned a survey of 22,000 European mobile service users and found that former users of mobile TV and video now outnumber current users by more than 19 percent. 

 

This research, conducted by M:Metrics in the UK, Germany, Italy, France and Spain, revealed that price, reliability and quality issues were the main reasons why users do not come back for more.

 

"Pricing has already been highlighted as a stumbling block for recurrent use of mobile video and TV services, but we were surprised by just how much value users place on quality and reliability," said Paul Goode, senior analyst, M:Metrics, in a statement.

 

"Once the basic requirements of quality and reliability are good enough, the focus will rightly shift to issues of programming, brands and marketing in addition to price. This research highlights the need to address quality and reliability so the industry can retain viewers, which is a key part of growing audience numbers."

 

Pricing issues caused the disconnection of services for 45 percent of European mobile video and TV users. In addition, nearly a quarter, or 24 percent, of users who had tried mobile video and TV stopped using it due to concerns about service quality and reliability.

 

The study also indicated that the disconnect between perception and reality was most pronounced in the UK. Only 6 percent of those who had never used mobile TV and video cited quality and reliability as reasons not to try such services. However, 29 percent of users had stopped using services because of quality and reliability.

 

According to Don Hutton, vice president, Tellabs, mobile companies in the US can gain quite a bit of knowledge about customer acceptance of mobile TV and video services from this survey. It also shows how important it is to have efficient backhaul networks that can satisfy the high expectations of mobile TV users.

 

Backhaul networks can experience a significant strain with new high-bandwidth services such as mobile video combined with the increasing number of mobile users. Such a capacity crunch can directly affect the quality and reliability of new 3G services.

 

As a result, service providers need a backhaul architecture that automatically allocated bandwidth and priority to prevent bottlenecks. Many operators are migrating to pseudowire-based platforms that enable Ethernet backhauling with strict Quality of Service and high reliability to ensure that users can enjoy mobile TV.

 

Even with enhanced systems to address the challenges presented by mobile TV and video, one still has to wonder who is going to want to watch when they have HDTV on a flat screen in their living room. Sure, the mobile professional may be able to access information on the road, but how many have time or desire to watch an entire program on their mobile device? While the service promises to be successful, this potential customer is still skeptical.

 

 

Susan J. Campbell is a contributing editor for TMC (News - Alert) and has also written for eastbiz.com. To see more of her articles, please visit Susan J. Campbell’s columnist page.