Samsung boosts Dyle mobile TV, tests eMBMS

Two separate announcements from Samsung business units highlight the progress in competing approaches for bringing broadcast television to U.S. mobile phones.

Samsung Telecommunications America (Samsung Mobile) joined MetroPCS (NYSE:PCS) to introduce the Samsung Galaxy S Lightray 4G, an LTE handset--based on Google's (NASDAQ:GOOG) Android 2.3 Gingerbread OS--that is the first smartphone in the United States to offer live, local broadcast television via Dyle mobile TV. The phone features an extendable antenna to pick up Dyle's TV signal.

Dyle leverages ATSC-Mobile technology that runs over broadcast frequencies separate from MetroPCS' CDMA and LTE networks and is operated by the Mobile Content Venture, a joint-venture of 12 major broadcast groups, including Fox, Ion Television and NBC. Dyle expects to offer digital mobile TV content through more than 90 stations in 35 U.S. markets, reaching 55 percent of the nationwide population. The venture pledges to continue adding more network programming and hardware options for Dyle in the future.

The Samsung Galaxy S Lightray 4Gis the first smartphone in the U.S.s to offer live, local broadcast television via Dyle mobile TV.

The Galaxy S Lightray 4G is also MetroPCS' first smartphone to feature LTE mobile hotspot functionality for expanding cellular data to multiple Wi-Fi-enabled devices. The handset is available from MetroPCS for $459 plus tax.

Meanwhile, Samsung Electronics demonstrated LTE Broadcast using evolved Multimedia Broadcast Multicast Service (eMBMS) technology, which industry players have said will be ready for commercialization in 2013.

Peter Jarich, vice president of Current Analysis' consumer and infrastructure services, recently included LTE Broadcast on his list of long-shot technologies and services in wireless for 2012. He noted, among other things, that" eMBMS is vying for attention alongside broadcast technologies driven by local TV stations."

Samsung joined with test equipment company Anritsu to demonstrate LTE Broadcast, which is designed as a scalable solution for delivery of high-bandwidth, high-demand content over LTE network infrastructure. LTE Broadcast ostensibly enables carriers to adjust coverage and capacity as needed, allowing for more efficient use of network resources.

Samsung's test used Anritsu's Rapid Test Designer and MD8430A signaling tester to simulate the LTE network environment. "The Samsung engineers were able to create the eMBMS demonstration using RTD's graphical script design to drive the execution of the test simulation on an Anritsu MD8430A LTE signaling tester," said Anritsu.

During this year's Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Qualcomm (NASDAQ:QCOM) joined with Ericsson (NASDAQ:ERIC) to demonstrate LTE Broadcast.

For more:
- see this MetroPCS release
- see this Anritsu release

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