Koreans happy with their mobile-TV experience

Since January, cellphone users in Seoul have been able to watch television on their cellphones through a government-subsidised technology called Digital Multimedia Broadcasting, or DMB. South Koreans have become the first to be able to watch — free — mobile TV around the clock.

While Americans and Japanese consumers can also watch TV on their cellphones, the images are not as clear. So far, the first consumer reviews in Seoul suggest that the images are free of jerky motion.

‘‘I can see the movements of the individual skaters clearly, even though they are only half a centimeter tall,’’ said Ko Pyeong Cheon, 24, who watched the short-track skating competition in Turin on his cellphone. ‘‘But I am not sure if I will feel the same when I watch the upcoming World Cup soccer games’’.

Experts say that the screen technology makes the images actually look sharper on screens that are smaller than seven inches. ‘‘It’s just like watching regular TV,’’ said Lee Jin Kook, 25.

There are still drawbacks. Images disappear when the reception is bad, for instance. Digital Multimedia Broadcasting takes current satellite radio technology and adds a technology to deliver video and data content, like news about the weather. While a paid satellite-based DMB service has been available nationwide since last May, the new free land-based version is currently available only in the Seoul area.

But the Government plans to improve reception and expand the service to other regions and to the subways. The Electronic Technology Research Institute, a government-financed organisation, expects that two million Koreans will use mobile TV this year, with the number growing to nearly 15 million, or about 30 per cent of the population, by 2010. Strategic Analytics, a research company based in Boston, forecasts that TV phone revenues worldwide may exceed $30 billion a year by 2010.

So far since January, there are only 40,000 land-based phone users, but since May, about 4,40,000 subscribers have signed up for satellite-based DMB phone service. DMB phones are slightly more expensive than ordinary cellphones. Users can rotate the liquid-crystal display screen horizontally so that it looks more like a television set. ‘‘Hey, if you lose this land-based phone,’’ said Seo Young Bae, 32, referring to his cellphone, ‘‘the person who finds it will never return it because he can get free television’’. — SU HYUN LEE SEOUL

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