Users critical of mobile TV

IN A four-way shoot-out between four mobile TV offerings, Rok TV seized an impressive second - just five points behind Vodafone Live! and four points ahead of 3. Orange came last.

However, panellists failed to even realise that Rok was using 2.5G technology while the others were all 3G. That meant that 3 was actually rated worse for audiovisual quality even though its 3G service is much faster.

The research was carried out by Strategy Analytics last month (June). But with overall ratings of between 56-65 out 100, Strategy said this indicated that end users weren't particularly impressed by any of the services.

The company failed to explain the 'technical reasons' why participants hadn't been able to evaluate Orange TV properly. It is particularly embarrassing for MobiTV which powers [Hutchison] 3's offering.

The company has only just raised an extra $70 million in VC funding. By comparison to Vodafone and MobiTV, Rok TV is just a minnow - which is mainly why it lost out in the range of content .

Rok has struck deals for its patented TV technology with operators in Taiwan, Turkey, Thailand, South Africa, Brazil and Russia. The company claims it does particularly well with operators who have no '3G axe' to grind. µ