Virgin Mobile drops BT mobile TV

BT is to dump its white label mobile TV service after sole customer Virgin Mobile announced it would cease the carriage of the service less than a year after its debut. In a statement BT said that although customer feedback for BT Movio had been positive, take up had been lower than expected, due to the lack of compatible devices on the market. A single handset, HTC’s so-called ‘Lobster Phone’, was available to Virgin subscribers.

BT Movio uses Digital Audio Broadcasting, sharing its spectrum with radio channels, and potentially freeing up additional bandwidth for new audio or data services. Movio’s case will not have been helped by the recent support from the European Commission for the DVB-H mobile TV standard.

The past few days have seen a shift in the positions of the varying mobile TV technologies. In the United States, Crown Castle International has dropped its DVB-H Modeo mobile TV network, leaving the field clear for Qualcomm’s MediaFLO.