Australian incumbent telco Telstra plans to launch mobile TV service via its existing third-generation (3G) network in October 2006. Telstra plans to offer 3G mobile phone customers a 12 channel pay TV service including Disney, Fox Sports, MTV, Sky News, The Comedy Channel and TV1 channels as well as preview channel for Foxtel's Box Office movie service. Telstra will provide service in conjunction with the country's leading pay TV provider Foxtel of which it owns a 50 per cent share. Following trials, Telstra opted not to use DVB-H but rather Ericsson's Multimedia Broadcast Multicast Service (MBMS) technology, an IP broadcast system that uses the operator's existing 3G network. Service will initially be made available via Samsung, LG and ZTE mobile phones.

Planned launch precedes roll-out of the company's new A$1.1bn ($832m) next-generation 3G network which is expected to cover over 98 per cent of the population. Telstra aim to sign up over 200,000 users to the new network by end 2006. New network will enable real-time video and Internet content to be delivered to mobile phones at speeds equivalent to Australia's mainstream ADSL Internet connections. Telstra expects new network to offer mobile users average data transfer speeds of between 500 kbps and 1.1 Mbps.

New mobile services are part of company's strategy to add new growth streams in an attempt to improve its investor appeal ahead of the Government's planned stock sale valued at around A$8bn ($6.1bn). Australia currently has three 3G service providers namely Telstra, Vodafone and Hutchison Telecommunications. Telstra hopes to gain an early advantage over its competitors by being the first to introduce high-speed downlink packet access (HSDPA) mobile technology. Vodafone is currently testing HSDPA on its shared network with number two telco Optus whilst Hutchison intends to introduce HSDPA technology commercially by March 2007. HSDPA mobile technology, also referred to as 3.5G technology, allows for higher data transfer speeds and subsequently improved data and video services compared with 3G mobile technology.

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