Matt Kapko

RCR Wireless News
AT&T Mobility’s MediaFLO-based mobile TV service has not yet officially launched; after a couple of false starts, the carrier appears set to launch the service, along with a pair of devices, in the coming weeks.

However, RCR Wireless News obtained an LG Electronics Co. Ltd. Vu handset that supports the service. After popping in our AT&T SIM card, we were able to purchase the AT&T Mobile TV with FLO service as an add-on for $15 a month. The service launched immediately and was working without error in our Los Angeles office.

Unsurprisingly, the service offers many of the same features and functions as Verizon Wireless’ MediaFLO-based mobile TV (which runs on the same Qualcomm Inc.-built network). But what’s holding our attention right now is a channel on the AT&T programming guide with “CNCRT” as its call letters. “Coming soon. Concerts exclusively on AT&T Mobile TV with FLO,” the screen reads alongside a stock photo of Avril Lavigne. No sound, no moving pictures yet, just that single image staring back at us.

AT&T declined to comment on what content will make its way to the channel once it’s live, but we’ve seen a few ads on the channels indicating bands like U2 and Dave Matthews Band might be hitting our LG Vu’s touchscreen soon. AT&T promises we’ll know more once the service launches.

We also had fun comparing the service with our at-home programming. Network shows are re-broadcast multiple times throughout the day on the MediaFLO deck, for instance. CNN and ESPN frequently use larger, full-screen text blocks to make news nuggets easier to read. And, audio and video quality has been consistent when there is a solid signal for the service while some pockets we visited in the Los Angeles and Orange County area went completely dark. At times, one channel would come in clear, then another would take awhile to acquire a signal.

After waiting more than a year since Verizon Wireless launched MediaFLO services last March, we’ve been holding out hope that AT&T had something more compelling up its sleeve to throw into the mix. And so, we’re anxious to see what AT&T has in store for the concerts channel. It was nice to see CNN recently added to the lineup (it’s election season, and we’re news junkies after all), but we’re having a hard time watching PIX, Sony Pictures Television’s channel. We’ve seen “Christine,” “Ghostbusters,” and “Flatliners” re-aired numerous times and hope the company plans to include much more of its extensive catalog before the service goes primetime.

From what we’ve seen, we think AT&T has a solid broadcast mobile TV offering that can compete and perhaps outpace the reach of Verizon Wireless’ Vcast Mobile TV. With the concerts channel and (hopefully) more services like datacasting on the way from MediaFLO, mobile TV just might strike the chord it’s failed to strum thus far.

Interestingly, AT&T’s mobile TV effort lands in a somewhat crowded space. Players range from SlingPlayer Mobile to MobiTV Inc. and GoTV Networks Inc., all of which run over carriers’ current cellular networks. And then there are TV broadcasters that might launch their own, independent service. Even Dish Network Corp., which is affiliated with Sling Media, has made a bet on wireless spectrum and announced a mobile TV trial soon .

As for MediaFLO, the service has suffered continued delays as Qualcomm waits for TV broadcasters to clear up the spectrum and move to digital-only broadcasts. Qualcomm CEO Paul Jacobs lamented the sluggish pace of MediaFLO at a conference last month.

RCR Wireless News
LAS VEGAS — Ever since television was invented in 1926, the industry has seen over-the-air broadcasts reach more screens as the medium exploded in popularity. The industry’s first push was to get a single TV set into as many living rooms as possible, then it was about increasing that reach with additional sets.

Now, broadcasters reach about 110 million televisions in the United States through high-definition and multicast services, but they have the potential to reach an additional 400 million to 500 million screens in the form of cellphones, portable media players, in-car backrests and more, Brandon Burgess, president of the Open Mobile Video Coalition, said on a panel at the National Association of Broadcasters Show last week.

$2B opportunity

“There’s an opportunity here to significantly enhance the footprint,” he said. The OMVC is a group of TV broadcasters representing more than 850 television stations that are pushing for the development and eventual success of a mobile TV standard for broadcasters. Indeed, the group believes there’s a potential windfall of an additional $2 billion in advertising revenue annually from mobile services alone if broadcasters move quickly.

“We feel it’s a very big opportunity with very little downside. We feel that it fulfills the digital vision that was mapped out 20 years ago,” said John Eck, president of NBC TV Network and Media Works. “It supplements delivery to the home.”

Tech choices

OMVC has conducted trials in San Francisco and Las Vegas for the past six months to test three competing technologies for a standard that will be selected by the Advanced Television Systems Committee later this year or early next year, depending on who you ask. The three technologies are: A-VSB, which is backed and jointly developed by Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd and Rohde & Schwarz; MPH (Mobile-Pedestrian-Handheld), a system developed by LG Electronics Co. Ltd. and Harris Corp; and a third system developed by Thomson and Micronas.

OMVC plans to lay out all the results from the trial in a report it will submit to the ATSC next month. Then it will begin consumer trials.

“The results we’re seeing are encouraging,” Burgess said. “We think feasibility is going to be there so we’re relatively confident that we’ll be able to execute on this.”

Triple play

He added that broadcasters are excited about the opportunity, particularly referring to what he called the “DTV (digital TV) triple play,” which describes broadcasters’ opportunities in high definition, multicast variety and mobile delivery.

“Consumers are already expecting high-quality video on mobile devices,” NBC’s Eck said.

He believes the sweet spot will be a mix of “push-VOD,” or video on demand, live streams and interactive content. “Delivering a live video stream is sort of the minimum requirement,” he said.

“I do think the core opportunity to make sure there is as much penetration as possible is to have as much free, ad-supported content as possible,” Eck said. “It could be a very important additional revenue stream for the industry.”

Eck admits that the struggle with cellphones in particular will be in getting a chipset and antennae built into devices, which might compete with existing similar services.

Challenging MediaFLO

Burgess compared broadcasters’ potential in the wireless space up against MediaFLO USA Inc., a Qualcomm Inc. subsidiary that’s launched live broadcast TV services in more than 50 markets thus far.

Qualcomm will spend an estimated $800 million on its MediaFLO business in the United States, which requires a completely new, standalone network, an expensive proposition compared to broadcasters’ mobile requirements, which will carry a roughly $100,000 cost per tower.

Broadcasters’ advantage lies in their ability to use existing infrastructure (with the addition of an exciter), content and bandwidth, Burgess said.

“We have content that Qualcomm does not have access to, which is where 90% of TV content viewership is based,” he said.

LG has been working on its mobile broadcast solution, MPH for the past eight years, said Jong Kim, president of LG’s Zenith research and development lab.

“MPH will have minimal impact on cost and form factor,” he said, adding that the MPH exciter is simply a plug-and-play upgrade to existing digital broadcast towers. The company tested one in Chicago where it was able to install the equipment and had it up and running in less than 30 minutes, he said.

“MPH is the deployment-ready mobile TV solution for both broadcasters and the industry,” Kim said.

Kim also said a free, over-the-air solution will be critical to mobile TV’s success. However, he doesn’t believe broadcasters will compete directly with the likes of MediaFLO. “This can be complimentary, not competition,” he said.

JaeMoon Jo, VP or core technology at the digital media research and development center at Samsung, said the profitability of MediaFLO is still in question, despite the opportunity for complimentary services from broadcasters.

Neither A-VSB nor MPH backers haven’t outlined any specific comparisons to FLO and DVB-H broadcast technology, but instead focus on broadcasters’ existing infrastructure and business models as a clear differentiator.

A-VSB has said it can still maintain a quality of service at 600 mile per hour while MPH puts its top speed in tests around 180 mph. However, neither has proven those claims in real-world settings.

RCR Wireless News
To hear Cyriac Roeding tell it, CBS Mobile started in 2005 as a “department of one.” Just two suitcases and three boxes in tow, Roeding left his home in Europe after convincing top executives to let him build a new mobile business out of the media conglomerate that is CBS, but with the taste and feel of a Silicon Valley startup.

“It wasn’t clear to many people from the beginning that this was going to be a serious business that we wanted to build. And that’s what we’ve always had in mind actually from the very beginning,” Roeding said. “It’s certainly very new for a media company like this to build such a business — very new area, new rules — and at the same time a lot of connection to the old world as well, to the existing world. We had to find a bridge. Our job was mainly to be bridge builders between these worlds and bring them all together. It’s been a challenge but it’s been an awesome experience.”

By now, Roeding has left CBS, leaving the division in the hands of Jeff Sellinger, Roeding’s first hire (the new executive VP and general manager of CBS Mobile).

“I just have that entrepreneurial itch again — I need to find the next cool thing,” Roeding said.

“This was my second startup and I’ve never seen it as anything else but a startup company. I have this strange philosophy that the role of a good manager is to make himself useless because once you’re useless, the machine is running, and I feel that I have reached my state of uselessness,” he said.

Both were equally full of praise for the other as the duo held an interview in the main lobby of “Television City,” CBS’s landmark property in Los Angeles, last week. Sellinger called Roeding a “great mentor, an incredibly brilliant guy and a great friend,” while Roeding called Sellinger an “incredible combination of creativity and execution.”

Although Roeding feels confident in the business he charged at CBS, both acknowledge the load of work to come.

“When you start mobile it’s certainly about building a business first and foremost, but it’s also about making a clear point. We are serious about innovation, we are driving the envelope of the future and we want to create the future of media and mobile is a core element of that. Whatever we could do to prove that point — that we are not followers — we try to make that happen,” Roeding said.

“Generally speaking I would say the role of a media company like CBS is drastically shifting. We no longer have a two- or three-hour primetime entertainment job to do, we actually have an 18-hour entertainment job to do,” he said. “As we go through the day, our challenge is no longer to just serve you something to consume at one point in the day, but actually to seamlessly migrate audiences from platform to platform to platform.”

Content types

Part of it comes to a philosophy about mobile content. Sellinger doesn’t view mobile media types through the same paradigm of on-demand vs. broadcast vs. on-deck vs. off-deck vs. whatever the latest catchphrase might be.

“Part of mobile is being current and timely,” Sellinger said. “

“It depends on the situation that the consumer’s in at that point in time. I think that the ultimate offering is a combination of multiple services. The ability to get things that I’m not getting because I’m not home, but then things that are designed specifically for the experience that I’m in — made for mobile content, which we’re big believers in,” he said. “Within mobile video today, we have I believe about 10 original shows that are in production right now that are all geared toward the mobile audience.”

Sellinger said he’s particularly interested in peer-to-peer services and technology that makes the mobile experience more relevant and personal.

CBS hasn’t suffered the content bottleneck that other mobile teams have faced when trying to extend existing products to the cellphone.

“We have a good number of our shows out on MediaFLO, a lot of sports out there as well,” Sellinger said. “I think the answer is the more everyone can clear, the better the experience gets for everyone.”

Measuring success

A mobile content philosophy only holds interest for so long. Eventually, executives like Roeding and Sellinger have to deliver the goods — measurable success.

“There’s a couple ways you can measure success,” Sellinger said. “One is financial, whether or not you’re making money for the company. Another is in marketing and promotion. After all, our content works off the content of CBS, the television network, so if we’re able to enhance that experience or provide value back to the properties, then that could be successful as well. And when you look at things like mobile Web and mobile video, there’s pure numbers of how many consume, how many people you reach.”

The company has released stellar numbers for CBS Sports Mobile (5 million unique visits in the last quarter of 2007), which make it one of the 10 most visited ad-supported mobile Web sites. However, no subscriber numbers have been released for the company’s off-deck channels, MediaFLO USA Inc. or its litany of mobile video and picture alerts.

We want free

The true bottleneck exists at the cash register, they said.

“Everything has been paid by the consumer. That can’t be the future,” Roeding said.

So how much money does CBS think consumers are willing to pay for mobile content?

“I think it varies depending on the services that you offer,” Sellinger said. “Ultimately we’re all going to win in a larger way when content becomes more ad-supported. We’re seeing a nice shift in that today in mobile and I think that shift will continue. There are certain thresholds that consumers will pay, but the more we can do to make it ad-supported the more we will reach a larger mass.”

And this is where CBS Mobile has been focused of late. It’s proud to be the first media company to sign partnerships with mobile advertising networks: AdMob, Millenial Media, Rhythm New Media and Third Screen Media.

“I think in general we’re at a crossroads in the industry, at a very important juncture. We have grown the content market, the data market, significantly; it’s now more than 17% of all the carriers’ revenue. That’s fine, but if we want to bring this to the next level, if we want to explode this to like 50% or 60% and not wait another five or 10 years, then we need to really think fundamentally about the business model underlying this whole business,” Roeding said.

“The only way that we have seen so far that is interesting is truly moving away from charging the consumer for most of the content. If content is free, consumption explodes. If consumption explodes, advertising dollars grow,” he said.

Distribution models

Ads that make free-to-air content a possibility might provide the number of viewers everyone in the business is hoping to reach, but Roeding and Sellinger freely admit how difficult that gets over 3G networks without targeted ads.

“Right now you cannot cover the transmission cost with one ad,” Roeding said.

“That’s the reason why MediaFLO exists. It’s because of the transmission costs. If you go into a one-to-one connection, you’re talking about substantial transmission costs. The one-to-many model is very efficient. Now the question that arises out of this one-to-many model is ‘how do you ensure that this is a truly mobile experience?’” he continued.

“What we need to make these models truly mobile is to leverage the functionality that the phone has that TV sets do not have. Because the cellphone is not a TV screen that is constrained. The cellphone is a medium that has capabilities that the TV screen does not have and we need to make use of those.”

RCR Wireless News
Application: Kwiry

Running on: Motorola Inc. Q Global on AT&T Mobility

Yay: A simple, accessible way to “jot down” ideas, reminders and whatever other random thoughts worth saving.

Nay: Kwiry provides only one function, but that’s OK. We love coming up with user IDs and passwords.

We say: Kwiry Inc. has built a simple tool that’s all about reminders. Life is full of reminders — most are ingrained in memory — but for those sporadic ideas that spark throughout the day, a simple text message just might be the best way to save that thought for later.

Review: There’s so many things to forget. Birthdays, holidays, bills to pay — sure those might be the things you focus on remembering. But what about that movie trailer that piqued your interest or that great new bar your friend was raving about?

A Kwiry would keep those thoughts on file. Signing up is a breeze and one confirmation text message later our mobile phone was ready to kwiry. Simply text any message to the short code 59479 (K-W-I-R-Y on the numeric keypad) and seconds later your message is stored online at kwiry.com.

We didn’t have anything to remind ourselves of right off the bat, but we’re in Las Vegas this week for CTIA Wireless 2008, so why not a friendly gambling reminder: “Don’t forget to bet it all on black.” Just in case those free drinks get the best of us, we’ll always know where our hard-earned money belongs at the Slots-A-Fun Casino. Sure enough, the message was stored under “kwirys” on our home page within seconds.

Now we know what you’re thinking. Isn’t this like sending an e-mail to yourself, but without a middle-man? That’s what we’re thinking, anyway.

So here’s how we figure it. E-mail will never be as cool as text messaging. With e-mails, there’s always an added level of etiquette. Some recipients require a more formal approach while others don’t. Plus, the e-mail inbox can be quickly bombarded, pushing that reminder way, way down the list.

Text messages dummy everything down. Bosses, relatives, friends — new and old — all get the same format from you. SMS is a language without rules. Three- and four-lettered words become a single letter. SMS is the language of the people, whatever we make it.

If you’re already used to twittering your whereabouts, Kwiry is a natural transition. Indeed, your Kwiry and Twitter accounts can be linked so you can send kwirys via twitter.

Our mind is full of the new ways we could use kwiry.

For example, there’s that woman who spends some of her mornings holding uplifting, laugh-out-loud messages on a sign on Ocean Boulevard in Long Beach. One Friday her sign read, “Dude, it’s Friday. The weekend is here.” It’s classic!

Although her smile and message for the day always strikes us, we always forget to look into it further. I mean, what if this woman is in some group that’s all about spreading its cheery love to commuters slogging through the morning? What if there are other locations where people can get this daily dose of joy?

A kwiry might have reminded us to dig around — or better yet, leave 10 minutes early to stop, say hi and return the favor.

RCR Wireless News
ICO Global Communications announced it will be launching a $500 million satellite into space April 14th that will eventually provide broadcast mobile TV service nationwide using digital video broadcast-satellite handheld (DVB-SH) technology.

“It is the largest commercial satellite ever lifted into space by (Atlas V booster),” CEO Tim Bryan said at a media event Tuesday afternoon. “We’ve worked for three years; spent $500 million to put this satellite program in space.”

DVB-SH, a variant of DVB-H that relies on satellite for delivery, is largely unproven (only satellite radio can be pointed to as a similar commercially launched service) for mobile TV services. The Craig McCaw-backed company pointed to spectral efficiency as one of the greatest characteristics of the technology, which it plans to first trial in Las Vegas and Raleigh, N.C., around June or July.

“We know DVB-SH is better. We’ve got the real world experience to back it up,” Bryan said.

John Leonard, president of applications and business at Alcatel-Lucent, said trials have produced a spectral efficiency that’s twice as efficient as DVB-H. ICO has signed on with Alcatel-Lucent to provide software that will manage content, the programming guide and interactive components for multiple screens. Its software will work with multiple technologies, “independent of the delivery vehicle, the delivery access for that content,” he said.

It’s also focused on providing an identical experience across all platforms.

“You don’t want the user to re-learn how to search for content, how to access content every time they change a device,” Leonard said. “The way you access content should be consistent” through a “common content management system and a common interactivity management system.”

Both companies are also claiming DVB-SH is more spectrally efficient than MediaFLO however MediaFLO USA Inc. is focused on broadcasting TV to handsets while ICO is going after in-car TV screens and larger portable screens. Bryan said there will be opportunity for the company to extend its offering to cellphones, but didn’t give specifics and the perception he left behind was that it might never happen.

On the programming side, Alcatel-Lucent’s model provides quite a different approach than MediaFLO has crafted with carriers. The Qualcomm Inc. subsidiary does most of the content deals (excluding pairs of exclusive channels recently announced with Verizon Wireless and AT&T Mobility) while Alcatel-Lucent’s approach will let carriers pick and choose their content at will.

Moreover, Leonard argued that MediaFLO leaves less room for innovative business models to emerge. “MediaFLO is a pre-defined business model in the way it operates,” he said.

Indeed, he believes business models will determine whether mobile TV will stay afloat (and grow) or sink into an abyss. “What we need to define as an industry is a business model,” he added. “Until we get that right obviously we’ll be a relatively small base of users.”

Beyond business models, ICO’s Bryan said nationwide coverage will have to be in place for any mobile TV provider to stick.

“Competition and services in the video field are highly prized,” he said.

Following both companies presentations, a financial analyst asked the executives to explain how the venture is more than a research and development project that was “mouse-trapped.”

“This is not an experiment. This is a product. This is a solution,” Leonard said. “It’s going to take time for the market to develop.”

Bryan concluded by saying the addressable market is at least as great as satellite radio services in the U.S., which has surpassed 17 million subscribers thus far.

“We see the size of that market being at least that size, many millions of customers,” he said.

RCR Wireless News
NBC Universal’s digital team has big plans this summer for its coverage of the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing — a colossal event and content-filled waterfall — that it hopes might increase awareness and whet the appetite for mobile television, George Kliavkoff, the company’s chief digital officer, said Monday afternoon.

The network plans to exploit every minute of its exclusive coverage of the games here in the United States with a complete package of programming on television, online and mobile.

“I think it will be a game changer for all digital platforms. It’s going to be the single largest digital media event ever,” Kliavkoff said.

NBC’s two existing channels on MediaFLO USA Inc. — NBC 2Go and NBC News 2Go — will be chalk full of Olympics coverage, Kliavkoff said, adding that Olympics coverage would, in effect, take over that pair of channels throughout the games. It also plans to make clips available on all the major carrier’s mobile TV service offerings.

“We’re very aggressive about distributing our content across all digital platforms,” he said. “Mobile for us, we see as one of the biggest, if not the biggest, platform for the future.”

Yet, like other NBC executives tasked with developing a profitable mobile business, Kliavkoff was asked to explain just what his boss, NBC Universal President and CEO Jeff Zucker, meant when he sounded a down note on the mobile industry earlier this year at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

“It’s actually not that important,” media outlets quoted him as saying. “We’re obviously playing in this world, but playing in a small way.” Indeed, Zucker went further and argued for the mobile-phone industry to cut better deals with entertainment companies for providing content. Companies like NBC typically only get a 10% cut of revenue share from the carriers, he said, according to reports.

“It’s the very early innings and people should just be patient,” Kliavkoff said.

“Mobile is not a large part of our digital revenue,” he said. “We’re going to continue to invest. I think we need to figure out as an industry how to invest together.

NBC Universal is projected to bring in about $1 billion in revenue on the digital side this year, Kliavkoff said.

“Of that, mobile today is not a large chunk of it. It’s a piece of it,” he said. “I think the biggest problem we have is all the venture money that’s coming into this market,” which is making people hesitant.

Kliavkoff dismissed any perceived clash between content providers and carriers, and instead opted to point out “different short-term goals” despite similar incentives to see mobile television succeed.

“We’re ready to put some money where our mouth is and create some original mobile content,” he said, but only after a proper framework and business model is agreed to at large. And who can blame NBC Universal for demanding solid return assurances before it goes full throttle with a mobile business.

He also pointed to log-jams that NBC is still grappling with on online video.

“The good news is when you’re associated with television advertising you get reach,” Kliavkoff said, adding that a true measurement model will have to be developed and adhered to before any significant advertising begins to flow towards mobile.

“This is the great opportunity in front of the industry. I think about measurements across all three screens,” he said. “Online we don’t have a common currency and we have gross inaccuracies.”

And with mobile it’s much, much worse, he said. “The carriers haven’t released a lot of usage data understandably at this point.”

The company is, however, emboldened by all the recent hype and carrier commitments to open networks.

“Nothing makes us happier because if you have the best content available you’re truly going to win on open platforms,” Kliavkoff said.

Beyond that the company also has significant spectrum holdings (at least 25% of it is untapped) that it’s considering using to deliver wireless TV.

Still, Kliavkoff doesn’t think it could succeed at launching something like that on its own. Again, it would require partnerships and an industrywide framework that involves all the players.

“I think it’s way too early to say if there’s going to be one platform provider or not,” he said, adding that whatever it is, most important is that the consumer doesn’t even notice or need to notice the technology being used to deliver content.

“Very, very early days and along with early days comes some frustration and opportunity,” Kliavkoff said of the current mobile TV business. “I think it’s just nothing but opportunity in front of us.”

RCR Wireless News
Gambling continues to be a vice mostly pushed to the sidelines. It pops up with a vengeance in places like Las Vegas and on Indian reservations, but there are plenty of outlets waiting with open arms for those who want more.

Gambling surged lock-in-step with the Internet explosion, only to be banned in the summer of 2006. The new federal legislation expanded a 1961 law that prohibits gambling over telephone lines to include the Internet, wireless and other technologies. It bans payments to offshore casinos and outlaws all forms of online gambling.

The focus is on the money that changes hands with financial institutions. Companies have continued to find new ways to transfer money, typically offshore.

Like everything the Internet breathed new life into on the PC, mobile has followed behind. Music, television, films and so much more have began to find their groove in wireless (albeit some much more successfully than others), but will gambling come to the small screen in a big way?

The fact is, it’s already arrived, but again, pushed even further to the sidelines. Although some companies offer betting through mobile WAP sites and downloadable applications, wireless and gambling veterans doubt it will have much success stateside.

“I’m just not sure. I don’t see an eager public. The public has most betting accessible to them already and then the sports betting would be limited,” said William Thompson, a gambling consultant and professor at University of Nevada, Las Vegas.

Sports betting is the most likely format to see any interest on mobile, said Thompson, who also goes by the name “Billy Gamble.” Lotteries would be another venue for potential success on mobile, but it’s unlikely to take off, he said.

“I’m not a big fan of its future,” Thompson said. “I think there is a future for Internet gambling with lotteries, but again you would have to be within a state that allows it.”

Abroad the outlook is much more golden. “There’s a tolerance of sports betting in Europe that we don’t have,” Thompson said.

“Anything that’s over the air here in the United States really hasn’t taken off,” Tikheayuk “Key” Sar, VP of business development and strategy at SkyZone Entertainment Inc., a mobile entertainment company.

Control measures

Sar, a former Verizon Wireless employee, said carriers want age verification and other control restrictions in place before they support any form of gambling or other adult-oriented content over their network.

“I don’t think some of these carriers have access-control measures in place,” he said.

“They don’t want to necessarily associate their brand or their network with (casino-like gambling),” Sar said. “To associate the Verizon Wireless brand with any illegitimate gambling establishment or even a legitimate one … they really have to sit back and think ‘do we really want to do this?’ ” he said.

“The last thing they really want to do is upset a group … and generate customer-care calls,” Sar added.

But, gambling-related information like lottery results is already being supported by carriers to some extent through short codes and the like.

Opportunity

A pair of recent reports from Juniper Research concludes that annual wagers placed on mobile phones will push to nearly $12 billion by 2010, while the total annual wagered on mobile casino services is expected to pass $5 billion by 2012.

However, in 2005 Juniper Research predicted that the worldwide market for wireless wagering would explode to as much as $18 billion by 2008.

“It’s nothing to sneeze about, but at the same time, how much of it is going to be spent to defend in litigation,” Sar said. “For SkyZone, this is something that we certainly wouldn’t turn our backs.”

Juniper Research projects that mobile lotteries will be the most popular service with more than 380 million users worldwide by 2010. The firm predicts the market will quickly be deregulated to some effect in Europe and the United States.

“The intimations from the United States are that the act will be repealed or at least reformed,” wrote Windsor Holden, the report’s author. “Should that be the case, then, facilitated by location-based technologies, in-state mobile lotteries, betting and possibly casino services will be available in that market by 2010.”

The report concluded that the United Kingdom is currently the largest market for mobile gambling services; however it will be surpassed by the United States by 2012.

The future potential for mobile casino services are to be taken with a large grain of salt, Holden wrote.

“While it is possible — even probable — that we will see some form of regulatory reform that will permit location-based, mobile casino services in the United States by the end of the decade, casino services — mobile, online or otherwise — are illegal in a number of territories and are likely to remain so for some time,” he wrote.

More than 60% of the total wagered on mobile casino services occurs in the United Kingdom, although its proposition is likely to fall below 20% as adoption accelerates elsewhere, the report concluded.

Legal issues

“The gambling that takes place in the United States, it’s either in a couple states or on Indian reservations or offshore,” Sar said. Any over-the-air gambling at this point is based in “offshore sites or controlled from an offshore environment,” he said.

There is opportunity for gambling to be offered to wireless subscribers located within a locale that allows legal gambling, but carriers would need accurate, real-time location information on that customer.

Nevada lawmakers passed legislation in 2005 that allows gamblers to place bets from public areas in casinos with at least 100 slot machines and other games. The law opened up the potential for gamblers to use wireless devices to wager from casino bars, dance floors and poolsides, but it’s unclear how much the new gambling avenue has taken on.

“Everything that’s legal has to be done within a state border. Even with horse racing, it would have to be an establishment within a state,” Thompson said.

In early 2007, the New York State Racing and Wagering Board voted to allow horse-race wagering via the Internet and mobile phone. The regulation stipulated financial reporting, record keeping and operational guidelines for racetracks and off-track betting companies to follow.

The Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006 makes Internet gambling illegal except where regulated by states, and specifically exempts state-sanctioned online gambling on horse racing and lotteries.

“Any illegal gambling using data over the carriers’ networks will probably be shut down within hours,” Sar said. “Nothing gets through the carrier for a long time.”

Wireless applications

Sportbet.com allows users to log in to a WAP site or download an application on their mobile device to place sports bets. The company has offered sports’ betting over mobile for at least 18 months, said Andrew Marino, a manager at the company.

“Pretty much anybody can bet,” he said. “Just when it comes to the deposit methods it’s kind of restricted.”