The trial kicked off amid Oxford's dreaming spires on Thursday. It is being run by O2 in partnership with Nokia and Arqiva, formerly NTL Broadcast.
O2 showed off the service in a demonstration in Oxford on Thursday. Four hundred Oxford residents have been supplied with Nokia 7710 smartphones, which have been adapted to receive broadcast TV signals as well as O2's mobile phone signal.
The trial service will carry 16 channels, including all the terrestrial channels, BBC News 24, CNN, MTV and British EuroSport.
O2 said it used a rigorous selection procedure to ensure that the 400 O2 customers involved in the trial represented a balanced subsection of the population.
The service is based on a technology DVB-H , which allows digital television signals to be received by mobile devices.
With DVB-H, the television signal is broadcast over an area, in the same way that analogue and digital TV are transmitted today. Dave Williams, O2's chief technical officer, told journalists that DVB-H was superior to 3G video-streaming because it consumes less bandwidth.
"3G is perfect for two-minute video clips. But, if you're watching a 90-minute football game, we think DVB-H is the most suitable," said Williams.
BT is currently trialling a mobile TV service based on digital audio standard DAB. There have been concerns that DAB provides an inferior signal inside buildings compared to DVB-H. However, the spectrum used by DAB is already available, while the spectrum needed for DVB-H is not.
"One purpose of this trial is to educate the regulator," said Williams. "Ofcom has said it won't make any decision [about making spectrum available for DVB-H] until 2006," he added.
Nokia 7710 smartphone, pictured here.


Mobile phone provider O2 (O2) in partnership with Nokia and Arqiva began a trial of a new service that allows customers to watch broadcast TV on their mobile phone. The trial began on Thursday in Oxford. Four hundred O2 customers have been selected to participate. According to O2  the trial represents a balanced selection of the population. 

Participants have been supplied with Nokia 7710 smartphones, that can receive 16 channels. The trial service currently carries BBC ONE, BBC TWO, BBC News 24, ITV 1, ITV 2, Channel 4 and 5, Eurosport, Cartoon Network, CNN, Discovery Channel, MTV, ShortsTV, Sky News, Sky Sports News and Sky Travel.

TV shows are transmitted using a technology called Digital Video Broadcasting for Handhelds (DVB-H). It requires a special receiver to be connected to the mobile phone. Nokia has said they plan to build support for the DVB-H technology into future Nokia phones. Using DVB-H the phones will get about eight hours per charge, this is because the DVB-H uses the "time slicing" technology.

Many other UK providers have offered mobile TV on cellphones, however this is the first to offer regular full length TV shows. Most other providers use the 3G video-streaming technology. "3G is perfect for two-minute video clips. But, if you're watching a 90-minute football game, we think DVB-H is the most suitable,"  said Dave Williams, O2's chief technical officer

Customers can use an onscreen programme to select programmes they wish to watch and it will alert them when the show starts.

In South Korea many mobile phone companies already offer television on mobile phones using a system called digital mobile broadcast.  In the US a recent survey by InStat, found few Americans are interested in mobile TV.  Canadian company Telus also recently began to offer mobile TV services.

"By establishing relationships through activities such as this, we hope that potential challenges will be minimized and mobile TV becomes a commercial reality sooner than is currently possible," said Dave Williams, O2's chief technical officer