Nokia Networks has announced it has commenced a trial of wide-area TV broadcasting using a single LTE frequency.
The company is working with partners including Bavarian broadcaster Bayerischer Rundfunk and the Austrian broadcasting research institute the Institut für Rundfunktechnik on the Munich trial.
The trial uses a Single Frequency Network design, whereby all base stations use exactly the same frequency to transmit TV content. Nokia said this can maximize the number of simultaneous TV channels broadcast over a large geographical area.
“Today, when watching videos over a mobile network, the content is individually streamed to each user. With LTE Broadcast the same signal is received by many users at the same time, resulting in more efficient capacity and spectrum use,” Nokia Networks CTO Hossein Moiin said.
Moiin said LTE Broadcast will allow operators to distribute TV over existing mobile broadband infrastructure, allowing subscribers to consume content without overloading the network or eating into their monthly data allocations.
This trial marks the first time LTE Broadcast technology has been applied to UHF spectrum, using part of the 700-MHz band to broadcast over a 200km2 area.
Nokia said the trial aims to show that LTE could be used to complement and eventually even provide another option to regional digital TV distribution standards.