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The Federal Communications Commission has approved Crown Castle affiliate and mobile TV service provider Modeo's request to increase the transmission power of the 1670-75 Megahertz (MHz) L-band spectrum license it purchased back in 2003. This could mean cheaper and better performing streaming audio and video in both urban and rural areas for Modeo customers when the service finally launches.

"Obtaining this waiver from the FCC is a critical milestone for Modeo," according to Modeo president Michael Ramke. "Our preliminary assessment of the increased power limit indicates up to an 80 percent reduction in the number of transmission sites required to cover a market. This should translate into a more efficient network build program from both a speed to market and cost perspective. We see this as a big win for Modeo and U.S. consumers and look forward to the positive impact of the power waiver."

Currently, the Modeo service, which is based on DVB-H (Digital Video Broadcasting - Handheld) technology, is in beta trials in New York City. The company started delivering DVB-H-enabled HTC Pocket PC Phones called the Modeo Mobile TV Smartphone (code-named Foreseer by HTC) to what in the end should be several hundred people over a month ago.

These folks - including select group of wireless carriers, reporters, industry analysts, financial analysts, and content providers - can watch 6 channels of live video from CNBC, MSNBC, Fox News, Fox Sports, Discovery Channel and E! and listen to 8 channels of audio content over Modeo's broadcast network.

Modeo is looking for feedback about programming content, coverage quality, ease of use of the Modeo Mobile TV Smartphone and overall use case scenarios. The company expects to use this feedback to evaluate network distribution options with wireless carriers.

The trial, which is expected to last throughout the first quarter, took three years to develop, according to the company.

How Mobile TV Works
Standards like DVB-H broadcast television signals separately from traditional cellular-data networks, freeing up precious bandwidth for other mobile operator content while promising better quality video to the consumer than current handset TV technologies like Modeo's own MobiTV brand, which piggyback video over regular cellular-wireless bands.

DVB-H's chief competitor, Qualcomm's MediFlo, which is scheduled to launch this quarter, is already slated for Verizon, Cingular, and Sprint. Unfortunately for Modeo, no operator has committed to its service yet.

Modeo Mobile TV Smartphone (aka HTC Foreseer)
Foreseer is built on Windows Mobile 5.0 and is a quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE device that measures 4.1 x 2.2 x 0.6 inches and weighs 4.23 ounces. It has a Texas Instruments OMAP850 200 MHz CPU, 64 MB of ROM, 64MB of RAM, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, a microSD card slot (for up to 2 GB of extra storage), a 1.3 megapixel camera, and, of course, a DVB-H tuner.

An NVIDIA Go-Force 5500 graphics engine operates the Pocket PC Phone's 2.2-inch QVGA (240 x 320 pixel), 64K-color touch-screen display at up to 30 frames per second. A 1150 mAH lithium-ion battery provides up to three hours of TV viewing, four hours of talk time or six days of standby time, Modeo says.

Last spring, PDAStreet got a chance to use the smartphone while it was receiving television signals from an ad hoc DVB-H network. It felt comfortable in the hand and, more importantly, reception appeared smooth. Not too surprising under the heavily controlled circumstances.