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O2 on Tuesday unveiled the first results of its ongoing mobile TV trial in Oxford and said from this point onwards it would no longer call the service "mobile TV" but "personal TV".

"The term mobile TV is not enough," commented Mike Short, vice president for research and development at the U.K. mobile operator. "We are introducing the term 'personal TV'" to reflect the individual choices that are made with the range of channels, handsets, and how and when the programmes are viewed.

Short, who was speaking at a press event in London to present initial findings of the DVB-H technology trial, added that mobile TV is "not portable TV. It's much more than that."

Both O2 and its partner in the trial, Arqiva, which is providing the broadcasting network and content, said results of the trial have so far been extremely promising and have also brought some surprises, such as that usage at home was higher than any other location.

A key finding, said Short, was that the number of channels available really matters. The trial has shown a clear desire by users for a wide choice of channels. Indeed, commented Short, the 16 channels provided by Arqiva for the trial was described only as "adequate", even though some of the triallists had analogue TV at home and so were generally used to receiving only up to five terrestrial TV channels.

"We think the range of channels is key to demand," Short said.

However, one of the key obstacles to the launch of DVB-H services in the U.K. - the current lack of available spectrum - is still far from being resolved.

In the trial O2 and Arqiva are using a temporary test frequency in the UHF band and are providing 16 channels to 375 O2 customers in Oxford via an adapted Nokia 7710 handset. The trial has been running since the end of September 2005 and will end in the spring.

According to Dr Hyacinth Nwana, managing director for mobile media solutions at Arqiva, the ideal spectrum for DVB-H is in the UHF band between 470 megahertz and 850 megahertz, but this frequency band is currently occupied and is unlikely to be freed up in the U.K. before the switchover from analogue to digital TV. Nwana added that "there may be other spectrum available that is not ideal", such as in the L-Band.

The U.K. digital switchover is not scheduled until around 2012.

According to Nwana, 2012 "is a bit too late for mobile broadcast" and he stressed that the role of mobile TV needs to be a key part of the discussions about the digital switchover in the U.K.

He said the Oxford trial is being used a "fair bit" to lobby the government. "We have to speak as an industry," he said.

Short also commented that there are unlikely to be four or five DVB-H networks in the U.K.: "We see a need for network sharing," he said, adding that "preliminary talks" have been started with other operators on network build.

But aside from all the potential thorns in the side of DVB-H, O2 and Arqiva said they think the feedback from the users in the Oxford trial shows clear demand for mobile TV services.

According to data so far, 83% of the triallists said they are satisfied with the service and 76% said they would take up the service within 12 months. According to Short, the accepted monthly price for the service is around the £8 mark.

Trial users tend to use the service at peak times in the day such as breakfast, lunch and early evening mostly when at home, at work and on the daily commute.

Short commented that it was a pleasing sign that users seem to access the content for short and longer periods of time, using it "both for snacking and the full buffet".

Some operators such as Vodafone and Orange are offering mobile TV services on their existing third-generation mobile networks.

According to Short, 3G mobile networks "will never be able to deliver these kinds of services" to millions of users.

O2 and Arqiva said they expect to announce final results from the Oxford mobile TV trial in the spring of 2006. Short was unwilling to give any further indication about the mobile operator's timetable for the launch of commercial services in the U.K.

anne.morris@totaltele.com