Welcome to MobileWorkz.com - Information on 3g video mobile phones

Byline: Chris Sewell

There's a freedom that comes from the visual barrier that separates you and the person you're talking to on the phone. You can slouch on the sofa and pretend to listen while instead watching TV, rolling your eyes at insipid comments, or even prancing around the house in your underwear if the spirit moves you. And all of this can be done with relative impunity.

But the glory days of channel surfing and pirouetting in your skivvies are coming to an end as video-to-video communication capabilities begin to surface. For decades, person-to-person video technology has been a futuristic fantasyland application, seen typically in "Star Trek" reruns and "Jetsons" cartoons. But now San Jose-based wireless solutions provider Thin Multimedia Inc. is delivering video to mobile phones over existing networks - proof that wireless video, and the revenue that comes with it, doesn't have to wait for 3G.

"Carriers have to act to create new sources of revenue," said Chuck Yoo, founder and CEO of TMI. "They don't have to wait. Our technology is software-based and [its integration] requires only a minimal effort for carriers and handset manufacturers."

Yoo founded Thin Multimedia in February 2000 and, along with Chief Operating Officer Dale Park, soon forged a partnership with SK Telecom, the largest of Korea's three mobile operators. Its high number of tech-savvy subscribers made Korea a good launching pad for TMI's rollout, Park said, and with nearly half of the Korean market's 27 million wireless subscribers, SK Telecom was the obvious partner.

In March 2001, the companies launched Thin Video Applications, which allow users to access pre-recorded video streams or use Web cameras to create video messages from their PCs that can be sent to Thin-enabled phones. Four months later, TMI's Thin System, a full suite of wireless video service applications, became available to SK Telecom's 13 million wireless subscribers.

TMI's wireless video platform is based on a wavelet codec called Thin Client Media 2 (TCM-2), and its supporting infrastructure includes authoring, streaming and decoding software tools. The software operates on all CDMA cell phones with multimedia screens; phones without TCM-2 can be recalled and retrofit with little difficulty, Park said, though SK Telecom doesn't offer an upgrade option.

Initially, TMI's software was based on MPEG 4, but the company soon discovered that handsets required to support that standard were expensive, and consumers weren't interested. "To use MPEG 4 based services, users had to buy specially designed, very expensive phones," Park said. "That service was pretty much dead on arrival."

To revive its DOA first effort, the company developed its TCM-2 standard, which delivers MPEG 4 quality video over existing 2G and 2.5G networks using ordinary CDMA phones. The technology was also designed to migrate easily to 3G.

TMI has so far teamed with various content providers to deliver sports highlights, movie trailers, music videos, animation and educational clips over more than 50 channels. Users also have access to live video traffic reports and can opt in for breaking news alerts via its Thin Video Alert application.

To this point, content providers have been mainly Korean, with the sole exception of Cinema Electric, which is currently the only U.S.-based content provider to team with TMI. Video content designed for cell phones is also in the works.

"We're focusing on the really well-known content producers that have lots of video clips already," Park said. "Some of them are really interested in re-creating their content into the small size." Yoo added that TMI has begun content-related discussions with content king AOL Time Warner, but that those talks are still in the early stages.

In addition to its deal with SK Telecom, Thin Multimedia also serves Korea's No. 3 carrier, LG Telecom, which gives it access to about 70% of the nation's total subscribers. Park said that TMI is also in talks with Korea's No. 2 carrier, KT Freetel. There are currently more than 1 million SK Telecom subscribers alone using Thin-enabled phones in the Korean market, and the company expects the total number of Thin users in Korea to reach 7 million by 2003.

Although no date is set for rolling out service in the U.S., Park said that TMI has begun informal discussions with all of the major U.S. wireless providers and that TMI may launch with one large U.S. mobile operator sometime this fall. The company will focus only on large mobile operators and vendors at first, he said, but in time it could target some of the smaller wireless providers.

Brandon Lee, senior manager at SK Telecom, said that wireless video service has been extremely popular in the Korean market, particularly with customers in their teens and 20s who use the service for entertainment purposes. "The Korean wireless data market is moving fast toward multimedia, and multimedia service will be one of our main revenue sources in the future," he said. "But we don't think multimedia traffic will cannibalize voice traffic."

But according to Michael Hoch, senior Internet infrastructure analyst at Aberdeen Group, TMI will have more difficulty rolling out in North America and Europe than in the Asia Pacific Rim. Handset immaturity in both parts of the world and competition - particularly in the U.S., where companies such as Microsoft and Real Networks want their codecs across all video platforms - could make domestic penetration tough.

"Right now they're a prime mover in Asia, but it's harder for them to be a prime mover in North America," Hoch said. "They're getting traction on cell phones in a market that is weak for Microsoft and Real, but as they come to North America, they're going to go up against those guys much more."

Although providing video-to-video cell phone communication is on TMI's agenda, Park said that unlike Korea, where wireless video is used primarily for entertainment in the consumer segment, services in the U.S. would be geared toward enterprise customers first. "We're focusing on business applications now, but there will probably be interest in entertainment areas soon, too," he said.

Whether TMI's first-mover advantage in Korea will give it a boost in the U.S. has yet to be determined, but its success to date is, at the very least, proof that customer demand for wireless video exists. So sit up straight, turn off the TV, eyes front and for God's sake, put your pants back on. Someone could be watching.