Mobile TV operators will have to pay for the use of spectrum. Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) chairman Nripendra Misra today said that the authority favours auction of spectrum for mobile TV operations. This will be proposed in its recommendations to be submitted to the department of telecommunications (DoT) next week.

"We are talking about de-linking licence from spectrum. Telecom service providers may like to bid for spectrum marked for mobile television," said Misra. TRAI will forward its recommendations on mobile TV to the government by Wednesday.

Mobile TV allows subscribers to watch TV channels on their cell phones. Operators can offer mobile TV service to their customers through the mobile telecommunications networks or by using the broadcasting technologies.

Mobile handset major Nokia is already running a pilot project with national broadcaster Doordarshan to test the feasibility of the commercial roll-out of the service.

Mobile television services allow a subscriber to view television services in a mobile phone or any other handheld device. A mobile TV service provider can be a telecom service provider or may be an independent mobile service operator. There are two ways of delivering television content to mobile devices-via mobile telecommunications networks or by using the broadcasting technologies. The main drawback of providing TV through the mobile networks is that there may be congestion in the network, if a large number of subscribers access television at the same time. However, its advantage is that roll out becomes easy in such cases.

The broadcasting method has an advantage of the efficient use of spectrum as the video content is delivered using one-to-many distribution topology. Thus, different viewers do not require dedicated channels for delivery of video content to them. This is very similar to traditional broadcasting services. A hybrid of the two technologies is also taking place.

About two years ago, TRAI had suggested the government should open terrestrial broadcasting space to the private sector also. The government, however, did not take any decision on it then. Now, it has asked the regulator to give its recommendations on mobile TV.