CTIA: ICO to Trial DVB-SH

ICO Global Communications will deploy a giant, half billion dollar satellite on April 14, with the aim of delivering mobile television using the DVB-SH broadcast standard. Market trials should begin in Las Vegas and Raleigh-Durham, N.C., in the middle of the year.

With gear and support from Alcatel-Lucent, and a terrestrial assist from Clearwire Corp., the satellite company plans to offer mobile television along with other services like traffic video updates, roadside assistance and even social networking.

Tim Bryan, CEO at ICO, said the real differentiator for the service will be its interactivity, and it's broad coverage. "It fills all the white spaces," he said during a press conference. "There are no dead spots."

The initial form factors will essentially be a modem that sits in the trunk of a vehicle, but that will be followed by portable and dockable OEM devices. Bryan cited the success of portable navigators as an indicator of consumer interest in that market. Handheld devices also may be enabled, he said.

"We are going to be the first nationwide mobile interactive media company," he said. "We're doing for video what Sirius and XM did for audio,"

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