Television is back on phones.
- Thanks to the 5G Broadcast standard, it can be watched without an Internet connection.
- Anicet Mbida presents this technology on “Bonjour! La Matinale TF1”.
In the 1980s, there was a Watchman, which was a Walkman but for television. This concept is making a comeback with the rise of portable TVs. “The novelty is that this time, it’s with your mobile phone that you can watch TV anywhere,” says Anicet Mbida on “Bonjour! La Matinale TF1”. “This will be possible thanks to a new standard called 5G Broadcast. Tests are starting in France. Just to give you an idea, to sum it up, it’s like if TNT arrived on your mobile phone. It’s a standard that will allow you to directly capture terrestrial TV signals on your mobile phone,” details the innovation and digital journalist. It’s already possible to watch TV on your mobile phone, but “when you watch TV on your mobile phone today, you use the Internet. It’s either through Wi-Fi or your 4G, 5G data plan, so you need a network, you need to use data,” adds the commentator.
A technology that follows the same principle as TNT
This new technology “works exactly like TNT. So, it’s the phone that automatically picks up the terrestrial signal. There’s no need for Internet, no need for Wi-Fi, not even a SIM card in your mobile phone. And that’s what changes everything,” explains Anicet Mbida. Currently, “75% of traffic on cellular networks, on mobile networks, is video. And today, there can be congestion. When millions of people are watching the same thing at the same time, it slows down,” details the journalist. “With this technology, this standard will follow the same mass distribution principle as radio, the same principle as TNT and will actually use the same antennas, so it will cover much larger regions. So, even if millions of people watch the same program at the same time, there will be no slow down, no delay in live broadcast. And “it will be free and you won’t consume your data,” specifies the commentator.
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When will this service be available in France?
For now, “the technology exists, it works in several countries. TDF, Télédiffusion de France, promises to activate it in France by the end of the year,” says the journalist. However, broadcasters have not communicated the date when “they will decide to send their programs on this new channel,” he adds. The mobile question also arises. “It would be enough to update your current phone to enjoy it, but it won’t work on all phones. Sometimes, you’ll need to buy a new mobile phone,” says the journalist. And the transition could take some time.
