But there's no launch date for the bandwidth-saving video technology yet.

Dan Jones, Mobile Editor

January 14, 2015

2 Min Read
AT&T LTE Broadcast Video Debuts at College Bowl

ARLINGTON, Texas, AT&T Stadium -- AT&T used one of the more feverishly awaited sporting events of the year so far to unveil its work so far with LTE Broadcast video.

Against the backdrop of the Ohio State Buckeyes beating the Oregon Ducks in the first-ever college football Playoff National Championship Monday night, AT&T Inc. (NYSE: T) showed off a video technology that it envisages will be frequently used in the stadium environment by sports fans to get video replays, special camera angles and statistics as they watch the game. (See AT&T Kicks Off LTE Broadcast.)

LTE Broadcast is a "one-to-many" technology designed to enable efficient delivery of a video -- or other multimedia -- stream to multiple users. Today, mobile users accessing YouTube or other videos wirelessly download each stream separately, using a lot of bandwidth in the process.

See it in action below:

Figure 1: Broadcast News LTE Broadcast uses an app on the device to manage the video stream. LTE Broadcast uses an app on the device to manage the video stream.

AT&T is upgrading its network with the Evolved Multimedia Broadcast Multicast Service (eMBMS) technology from Ericsson AB (Nasdaq: ERIC) that underpins the capability to offer LTE Broadcast. The demo at the stadium used Samsung Corp. Note 3s with chipsets from Qualcomm Inc. (Nasdaq: QCOM) onboard. ESPN and MobiTV provided the videos for the demo. (See eMBMS: Revolutionary Technology or Alphabet Soup?)

The way the technology allows the carrier to efficiently use and adapt the use of bandwidth is one of the attractions of the technology for Mo Katibeth, VP of global technology planning at AT&T Services. "We can do about six or seven [video] channels per 10MHz of spectrum allocated," he tells Light Reading.

The bandwidth can also be dynamically allocated for LTE Broadcast. So if AT&T wants to offer video streams on game night at the stadium it can do so.

Nevertheless, LTE Broadcast capabilities are still very much in their early days in the US right now. Katibeth says that AT&T is still testing LTE Broadcast and the operator isn't naming a launch date for the service yet.

Verizon Wireless showed off a similar Broadcast demo at the Superbowl in NYC last year. The operator said in the fall that it expects the service is a year away. (See Verizon's 4G Video Freeze Frame and Verizon: Multicast Is 'a Year Away'.)

— Dan Jones, Mobile Editor, Light Reading

About the Author(s)

Dan Jones

Mobile Editor

Dan is to hats what Will.I.Am is to ridiculous eyewear. Fedora, trilby, tam-o-shanter -- all have graced the Jones pate during his career as the go-to purveyor of mobile essentials.

But hey, Dan is so much more than 4G maps and state-of-the-art headgear. Before joining the Light Reading team in 2002 he was an award-winning cult hit on Broadway (with four 'Toni' awards, two 'Emma' gongs and a 'Brian' to his name) with his one-man show, "Dan Sings the Show Tunes."

His perfectly crafted blogs, falling under the "Jonestown" banner, have been compared to the works of Chekhov. But only by Dan.

He lives in Brooklyn with cats.

Subscribe and receive the latest news from the industry.
Join 62,000+ members. Yes it's completely free.

You May Also Like