|
In what is being claimed as a world's first, Ireland Live Television News is offering its live colour news broadcast feed to Irish XDA users. The news service is streamed to the handsets using O2 Ireland's GPRS network and is also available over all GPRS-enabled devices that can accommodate streaming video and audio.
"This brings television to a whole new level," said Andy Ruane, chief executive officer of Ireland Live Television Networks. "You can now walk down the street watching the news and within a year's time you could be watching Friends on the DART." The company's other streaming offerings, a comedy channel and live broadcasts from the Dail, are also available over GPRS.
Launched in March 2002, the Web-based Irish news channel streams video and audio news on a continuous feed 24-hours a day. Its news is repeated and updated every 15 minutes, and it employs its own journalists and news crews. The venture is aimed at the approximately 70 million people around the world of Irish descent and, according to Ruane, reaction to it has been "huge" in the US. The venture cost over EUR6 million to get off the ground.
Access to the mobile service is free and viewing it will only eat slightly into GRPS users' download allowances, as each stream will be between 20K and 40K in size. For instance, an O2 Ireland GPRS 25 customer has a monthly download allowance of 25MB for EUR35 a month. In addition, they are charged EUR2 for every 1MB they download over that limit.
Other GPRS services available to O2 Ireland customers include the ability to access corporate intranets and Microsoft Exchange data, including e-mail, contacts and calendar information, as well as full-colour HTML browsing and secure access to VPNs (Virtual Private Networks).
The XDA has only recently been launched in Ireland. It combines a PDA running on Microsoft's Pocket PC operating system with a mobile phone and can operate on both GSM and GPRS networks. It has a variety of features such as Internet access, instant messaging, e-mail, music, location-based services and games. According to a spokesperson for O2, the mobile operator will continue to explore the possibility of making similar streaming services available to XDA users.
|
