MobiTV, the streaming video provider for Sprint and Cingular, today announced live High-Definition television delivered over a pre-mobile WiMAX network will be demonstrated at the CTIA annual convention next week.

The real-time demonstration will showcase the MobiTV service running over Navini's Ripwave MX gear to both fixed and mobile customer premises equipment.

Navini's patented smart beamforming technology is said to provide a seamless upgrade to the Mobile WiMAX standard. Their Smart WiMAX is a combines mobile WiMAX with Smart Beamforming. Navini says their Ripwave MX portable, zero-install clients can be upgraded to the IEEE 802.16e standard.

MobiTV says the key features and benefits of the MobiTV service for WiMAX and mobile WiMAX include:

• Smooth integration with existing service infrastructure
• Efficient full-duplex bi-directional delivery with transactional capabilities
• Support for a combination of Unicast and Multicast delivery models for optimal network utilization
• Full interactivity; which includes m-commerce, voting and other capabilities consumers, carriers and the advertising community wants
• Targeted national, regional, and local advertising

MobiTV announced support for WiMAX on September 8th, the same day Sprint announced its committment to Mobile WiMax.

The rumor mill has been abuz over a possible partnership between DirecTV and NDS which makes a TV-over-WiMAX- technology (right). The PayTV software maker, based in UK, will demo their TV-over-WIMAX system in a partnership with Intel at the big IBC 2006 conference in Amsterdam this month. Malik points out the largest shareholder in NDS is News Corp.

Om Malik asks; Is TV Really the Killer App for WiMAX?

MobiTV currently offers a television-over-WiFi product that is nimble enough to work over 300-to-500 kilobit per second wireless data stream. It has a couple of dozen channels, and can make for a pleasant viewing experience on a laptop, and even some larger screens.

An offering similar to that can easily be delivered over fixed wireless or Mobile WiMAX networks (if and when they materialize) but lets not mistake that for a full screen HDTV experience. That would require some serious bandwidth – a serious shortcoming with WiMAX for now.

It would be tempting for DirecTV to make this work (somehow).

Satellite providers will never get into apartments (like mine) that face only North. An alternative wireless delivery channel (like WiMAX) would be a temptation. But how would it work?

If you multicast 20 channels (perhaps a mixture of radio, tv, mobile entertainment and RSS feeds), at an average of 1 Mbps each, you consume 20 Mbps just on broadcasting. Two-way broadband would require additional spectrum. Mobile WiMAX typically assigns 10 MHz per sector with a throughput of 25 Mbps or so. There just isn't enough spectrum to go around.

Maybe DirecTV could combine licensed 2.5 GHz Mobile WiMax from Clearwire for 2-way broadband, while unlicensed 5.8 GHz gear (from NDS) could supply a 1-way multicast tv solution (in lieu of a satellite dish).

But that would require the construction of two, brand new nationwide networks. That's a stretch.

Perhaps niche applications could find it useful. Maybe rural users could combine mobile WiMAX handhelds with television multicast -- if they've got spectrum to burn at 2.5 GHz. But you'd be lucky to get a dozen SD multicast channels on the 25 Mbps available. And no space for two-way.

In the end, television over WiMAX seems a pipe dream. A waste of space. That's what DVB-H and MediaFLO are for. They have more power and deliver better range. Of course, DVB-H and MediaFLO are not HD (or even Standard Definition). HD over WiMAX might be a good trick. But it will have to wait for spectrum.

Perhaps it's all about positioning for the 60-90 GHz band. Now THAT's wireless cable!

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