Cingular kicks off 3G services with TV

Cingular today revealed its first consumer 3G service, a mobile television platform featuring channels from ESPN to HBO. The line-up is the first service beyond broadband data access Cingular has launched over its new UMTS/high speed downlink packet access networks and the first service offered over a UMTS handset.

Called Cingular Video, the line-up features clips and mobile-optimized features from many of the major traditional TV outlets: Cartoon Network, CNN, the Disney Channels, several ESPN and Fox news and sports channels, NBC, the Weather Channel and TV Guide. In addition, Cingular will feature several specialty channels such as Fuel, which focuses on action sports; Speed, focusing on racing and motor sports; iFilm, a channel of movie trailers and clips; and Music Choice, a music channel featuring videos and artist interviews.

Topping off the line-up will be two premium HBO channels, HBO Family, focusing on children's programming; and HBO Mobile, which will feature clips from HBO hit shows like the Sopranos and Sex in the City. The HBO channels are expected to be Cingular's flagship content offer as Cingular announced its exclusive deal with HBO in December and began running TV ads for the new channels over the weekend.

As its first consumer 3G service, Cingular Video coincides with the launch of its first 3G phones. Cingular is offering two handsets, the LG Electronics CU320 and the Samsung SHG-ZX10, both priced at $150 with a two-year contract and further discounted with $50 promotional rebates. It plans to offer two additional UMTS terminals, the Nokia 6282 and the LG CU500, later this spring.

Cingular has now has its UMTS/HSDPA network in 15 markets centered in metropolitan areas, though it plans to launch additional markets throughout the year. Though the service has been live since December, Cingular has so far only offered a business-focused broadband access service using data cards. Though the data cards are capable of accessing the increased capacities of the HSDPA augmentation (400 kb/s to 700 kb/s average downlink throughput), the first generation of Cingular 3G handsets are UMTS only, but Cingular officials have said they plan to offer HSDPA handsets as soon as they are available. The TV platform itself is built on RealNetworks' end-to-end Helix platform.

In a previous interview, Cingular Chief Technology Officer Kris Rinne said that Cingular is taking a different approach to its 3G consumer services than its competitors Sprint and Verizon Wireless, which have both rolled out CDMA 1X EV-DO networks. While Sprint and Verizon are building specific 3G portals and brands around Power Vision and Vcast respectively, Rinne said that Cingular doesn't initially plan to separate its 3G services away from its 2.5G services, keeping all of its GPRS, EDGE and UMTS customers under the same MEdia Net umbrella. That said, Cingular has said it plans to offer specific high-capacity services that will operate only on the new networks: Cingular Video being the first, but it also plans on rolling out later this year a peer-to-peer communications application over the UMTS network and powered by its new IP multimedia subsystem architecture.

Cingular is billing the service as the most comprehensive TV offering in the industry, saying that other carriers offer only a few non-premium TV channels and then incrementally charge for most of their contest. In Cingular's model, all but the HBO stations and the on-demand video clip stations such as Music Choice are included within its unlimited access MEdia Net bundle for $20 a month. But the premium HBO channels will come at a steeper price. Cingular is charging $5 a month for HBO Mobile and $3 a month for the family channel. The on-demand streaming services will charge pay-per-view-like rates.