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The company has secured a head start in offering the BT Movio broadcast service on what it calls a 'limited exclusive basis' to its customers later this year. The new digital broadcast service will allow Virgin Mobile customers access to a range of digital TV content and 350 DAB digital radio stations nationwide broadcasting twenty-four hours a day.

In order to receive the TV channels Virgin is to introduce a new DAB-IP enabled smartphone called the Trilogy. Already dubbed - almost inevitably - the 'tellyphone', the Trilogy is fitted with a 2.2" screen and a range of other features including removable storage options and an integrated 1.3 mega pixel camera.

The BT Movio broadcast digital TV and radio service for mobile phones uses the DAB system already familiar to thousands of radio listeners. By launching this summer, BT and Virgin hope to steal a march on O² and NTL, who are championing the rival DVB-H format and began trials in Oxford

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last year. However, critics say that DVB-H is still some years away.

The Movio service is underpinned largely by software from Microsoft's Windows Media technologies, including Windows Media Video and Windows Media Audio Pro. It also incorporates Windows Media Digital Rights Management (DRM) technology to prevent illegal copying of the downloadable content. Windows Media technologies integrate with the Windows Mobile 5.0 operating system used by the HTC smartphones.

Virgin Mobile says the service should kick off some time in the summer. However, prices for both the Trilogy handset and the movies are not yet finalised, although a pilot scheme suggested a figure of around eight pounds a month is acceptable. Likewise, the company is not revealing what kind of content is likely to appear on the Virgin Mobile handsets beyond saying that in the pilot that ran last year the most popular programmes were news and 'branded entertainment' from the major channels.

The announcement will make Virgin Mobile even more attractive to NTL which has been assiduously courting Virgin Mobile. However, a Virgin spokesperson said the NTL bid was 'unrelated' to the forthcoming mobile TV service.

In case anyone was thinking that by using their mobile to watch television programmes you could avoid the TV Licence fee, the licensing authorities have warned that you still need a licence in order to receive the broadcast content.