The TDtv technology was originally developed by IP Wireless, (Chippenham, England) which NextWave (San Diego, Calif.) bought last April for a minimum of $100 million. The technology pools spare capacity in both operators' UMTS networks to deliver a multicast service to handsets equipped with special chipsets.

The pilot, scheduled for the second half of 2008, follows successful technical trials of the TDtv technology last year in the Bristol area by several operators. The companies said the trials showed that TDtv can mirror WCDMA coverage with less base stations than those needed by the cellular network, and successfully deliver TV broadcasts to phones in moving vehicles.

The deployment of TDtv technology by two tier-one European operators could be a severe blow for the future prospects of rival broadcast mobile TV technology DVB-H — which although it has been around for much longer and has received the official endorsement of the EU, has so far only been deployed in a handful of countries.

T-Mobile is, together with O2, a mobile TV laggard in the UK. Whilst all other UK carriers, including Orange, have offered TV streamed over 3G for some time, T-Mobile only started trialing such a service in 2Q07.

NextWave and the operators say the London trial would "showcase an innovative consortium model that can be easily replicated by mobile operators in more than 50 other countries where unpaired 3G spectrum is available."

As part of the deal, NextWave will provide a TDtv Device Integration Pack, a complete chipset and software package that enables handset vendors to add TDtv to any multimedia enabled WCDMA handset.

NextWave's Packet Video (PV) subsidiary will also provide an Electronics Programming Guide that will integrate the TDtv service with the operators' existing 3G services.

PacketVideo will also provide the pilot its MediaFusion platform, a client-server software application that allows mobile operators to rapidly develop and launch on-device portals for media services, including music-on-demand, personalized streaming radio, live TV, and video-on-demand.

During the six month trial, participants will use TDtv-enabled WCDMA handsets to receive up to 24 high-resolution television channels along with 10 digital radio stations at what the operators suggest will be a far lower delivery cost per channel than previously possible.

T-Mobile UK Technical Director, Emin Gurdenli, said: "On a technical level, our involvement with this TDtv pilot is intended to raise awareness of the potential of broadcast mobile TV and help stimulate the development of an industry-wide ecosystem in which operators, handset manufacturers and content providers collaborate to realize a robust commercial proposition. TDtv uses part of the licensed 3G spectrum which is unused at the moment and is a technology that can scale to support high simultaneous usage levels without any degradation in quality."