Telecommunications, Automotive and Market Research

More than 15 years in the mobile telecommunications industry and an industry analyst since 1998.

Tuesday, October 26, 2010

I'm interested in Mobile DTV, but how can I get it?

I'm so glad you asked that.  Because I wasn't even certain how and where to get started with Mobile DTV, myself.  All you have to do is two simple things:

  1. Buy a compatible receiver.  It's not hard to find something if you go onto amazon.com and search for "Mobile DTV." There are a variety of devices already available. MyGoTV.com also has handheld Mobile DTV receivers but seems to be sold out. 
  2. Move to a city where there local broadcasters have deployed Mobile DTV using the ATSC M/H standard. It's not every city yet.  Here is a pretty good list of cities from RabbitEars.com. Look for the green logo that indicates the service has launched. 
For a receiver, you could choose a complete Mobile DTV player from LG. Or, if you just wanted to add the reception capability to your laptop computer, you could get a USB receiver from Coby.

Of course, you have to be in a place where you can get a signal.  You're can pick from five different Mobile DTV stations if  you're in New York City or Charlotte, NC.  Los Angeles or Philadelphia have three stations each and you'd hit the jackpot in Washington, DC, where there are seven televisions offering 16 channels including Fox News, PBS, MTV and Nickelodeon. In all, 14 of the top 20 markets have operating Mobile DTV stations today.

For me, I'd have to move to some other city.  Not only are there no mobile DTV stations in operation, there aren't even any on the drawing board, according to the RabbitEars.com list.

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