MUMBAI: Alcatel-Lucent has announced its support for the world’s first commercial trial of the Open Mobile Alliance (OMA)’s new Bcast Smartcard Profile, a key emerging standard for mobile TV content protection.

This trial is being led by Alcatel-Lucent for MobileOne (M1), a mobile telecom service provider in Singapore, and MediaCorp along with key mobile telecommunications providers SingTel and Starhub.

The trial, which began in early August 2008, is based on Alcatel-Lucent’s industry-leading Mobile Interactive TV solution, which will power the DVB-H (Digital Video Broadcasting-Handheld) platform for the trial. The trial also includes mobile devices from Samsung and Smartcard Profile-compliant SIM cards from Gemalto.

Alcatel-Lucent’s DVB-H platform supports the Open Mobile Alliance BCast Smartcard Profile (OMA Bcast SCP) standard, which is being adopted globally. This is a SIM-based service protection system that enables Mobile TV providers to offer flexible subscription models incorporating services such as pay-per-view, pay-per-time, recorded content and more.

The Alcatel-Lucent Unlimited Mobile TV solution is a complete, turnkey solution that presents end-users with a truly diversified Mobile TV offer based on a mix of mainstream broadcast channels and an unlimited number of specialty unicast channels. Thanks to its multi-standard approach - spanning 3G, DVB-H and DVB-SH - the solution supports most of the DVB-H handsets on the market, including those supporting Digital Right Management Profile (DRMP) or Smartcard Profile (SCP).

Starhub head of mobile services Anil Nihalani said, "The DVB-H platform is designed to optimise the delivery of broadcast content over mobile devices. Starhub is keen to gauge the receptiveness of our customers to this new service, and is pleased to be working with Alcatel-Lucent, Samsung and Gemalto in the user trial."

MediaCorp MD technologies Mock Pak Lum said, “The mobile phone is truly a unique platform as a third screen for TV content. The success of the Mobile TV service depends on abundance of handsets and good user experience. We are very happy that Alcatel-Lucent is supporting us for this trial”.

Alcatel-Lucent MD Singapore and Brunei Oliver Foo says, “We are pleased to be able to partner with Singapore’s leading mobile communications industry players in bringing more advanced mobile TV options to Singaporeans. Asian subscribers are ready for a mobile TV offering that delivers a large variety of choices, a high level of personalization, maximum interactivity and great quality of service.”

Samsung Asia MD Yoon Ki-Heung says, "Samsung is pleased to provide the latest Samsung SGH-P960 for the consumer mobile DVB-H trials in Singapore conducted by the three local telecommunications providers and MediaCorp.

“With its DVB-H digital TV receiver, large LCD screen, HSDPA support and other capabilities, the SGH-P960 is an excellent showcase of Samsung’s mobile technology leadership. Samsung is confident in the upcoming DVB-H trials and looks forward to the day consumers in Singapore can get seamless streamed broadcast content direct into their mobile handsets."

NDS Asia Pacific VP, GM Sue Taylor says, "NDS is proud to be providing its industry leading Conditional Access System, with our VideoGuard Mobile, for this groundbreaking trial, in cooperation with Alcatel-Lucent, M1, Mediacorp, SingTel, Starhub and our other partners.

"The NDS solution is based on the NDS Unified Headend architecture, which provides a single point of rights management for all video broadcasts, irrespective of the delivery networks or the rendering devices. The new platform will enable our partners to support multiple mobile broadcast profiles and multiple handsets simultaneously and cost-effectively."