Yesterday Nokia announced N92, a smart phone based on Symbian OS (Series 60) that is capable of receiving DVB-H. It means we will be able to watch TV in our mobile phones pretty soon. Nokia is planning to release this phone next year during Football’s World Cup 2006 in Germany.

Well… actually we can already watch “TV” now through 3G or WiFi, but there are still many limitations, such as quality. It is like talking via VoIP a few years ago. DVB-H is not delivered via 3G nor WiFi networks. It is delivered to our mobile phones via specific network which uses frequencies of 5, 6, 7 or 8 MHz.

So by the end of next year, we will have almost everything in our mobile phones. We have been playing games in our mobile phones since “Snake” era in Nokia 5110. We have already had radio in our mobile phones since a few years ago. Camera phones have become a standard feature in mobile phones nowadays, even in low-end phones. This year, we have seen several music phones came to the market. Nokia will release N91, music phone with 4 GB hard drive beginning of next year. Sony Ericsson has released several Walkman phones. Motorola has jumped into the “music war” too by releasing ROKR with iTunes support.

What is DVB-H? DVB-H, shorts for Digital Video Broadcast-Handheld, is a specification for bringing broadcast services to handheld receivers. It is one of DVB projects. The goal of DVB itself is to offer open standards for delivering “any digital” to our homes, including high definition TV, multiple channels standard definition TV and broadband multimedia services. There are already several specifications from DVB, for example DVB-S – world satellite transmission, DVB-C – cable delivery mechanism, DVB-T – terrestrial transmission system, etc.

We need another specification for handheld devices, that is DVB-H, because of battery life. Handheld devices, such as mobile phones, have a very limited battery life. We cannot switch the receiver on for most of the time; otherwise the battery will be empty very fast. DVB-H uses time slicing to reduce power consumption. The idea is to deliver bursts of data at a time, so the receiver is inactive for much of the time.

What is the future of Mobile-TV and DVB-H? I would say Mobile-TV will be booming in the next few years, but not next year because many countries are simply not ready yet for DVB-H. I think next year will be the year of music phones…. Music war has not ended yet, it has just begun….. :)