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The new format, known as TDtv uses the existing unpaired 3G network. Using the 1900MHz and 2010MHz 3G spectrum bands, which are widely available across Europe and Asia, IPWireless claims that operators can run 50 TV channels in just 5MHz of unpaired 3G spectrum, leaving existing 3G services such as voice and data unaffected.

Companies that have a spare 10MHz on their spectrum licence can deliver 100 channels.

More importantly for the future of mobile TV as a mass market service, TDtv uses the recent 3GPP Release 6 Multimedia Broadcast and Multicast Standard

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(MBMS) allows an unlimited number of subscribers to watch the same channel or use the same network bandwidth.

This compares with the existing mobile TV services on trial at the moment where each user logged in to a TV channel takes their own bit of spare bandwidth.

In turn, it means that operators who have only recently finished building their 3G networks face the prospect of a new round of infrastructure investment to take advantage of mass market mobile TV. In contrast the owners say that TDtv can be integrated into current 3G systems for about £7,000 per base station.

IPWireless says that a number of operators across the world have committed to trialling TDtv in the first half of 2006.

Meanwhile, the results of a trial of mobile TV in Oxford is showed promising results. The trial which began in September of last year offered 24 hour live access to 16 TV channels based on the DVB-H (digital video broadcasting - handheld) standard. It found that 83 per cent of those who took part in the trail were satisfied with the service provided with 76 per cent saying that they would subscribe to such a service if it was on offer.