Ericsson, Verizon and Telstra Plot Video Broadcast Over LTE

As consumers demand access to their media content on all of their devices, TV and video traffic is set to dominate networks and grow from accounting for 40 percent to 90 percent of mobile traffic within the next three to four years. LTE is a more efficient network technology for delivering video, so Ericsson is launching an exclusive end-to-end solution for video broadcast over LTE. US operator Verizon Wireless and Australian giant Telstra both plan to deliver VoLTE with the solution.

Ericsson's LTE broadcast solution is aimed at supporting video content for popular events with guaranteed delivery. It enables operators and their media partners to provide premium services with guaranteed quality and cost-efficient delivery over LTE.

"Verizon plans to introduce Ericsson LTE Broadcast to give sports fans a whole new experience while watching a game,” said Parissa Pandkhou, director of advanced solutions at Verizon, which will launch in 2014. “We see new opportunities in this technology for sports, concerts and even distance learning and college classes."

Mike Wright, Telstra's executive director for networks and access technology, confirmed that Telstra will partner with Ericsson on a live network trial of LTE Broadcast technology in the second half of 2013.

"The trial will show how we can improve the delivery of video to customers who want to enjoy the video content on the move,” Wright said. “The key for this solution is the greater network efficiency it will provide, ensuring we will be able to meet a critical business imperative of giving our technology savvy customers the services they want.”

Ericsson's ConsumerLab research shows that 67 percent of consumers use mobile devices (tablet, laptop or smartphone) for  the consumption of TV services. Furthermore, the research shows that over 50 percent of TV consumption on smartphones happens outside of the home (on mobile networks). The new video over LTE solution meets the needs for greater efficiency in the delivery of content to all devices and greater personalization of TV experiences.

“We see a clear demand for the efficient delivery of video over mobile networks. To meet these needs, we are excited to be working with Ericsson to offer a cutting-edge solution for high-quality live and non-real-time media services over LTE broadcast-enabled networks,” said Peggy Johnson, executive vice president of Ericsson partner Qualcomm Technologies and president of global market development.

The LTE Broadcast solution consists of three new technology standards: HEVC (High Efficiency Video Coding) - the new video compression standard promises to half the bandwidth required to transport video content compare to today's leading implementation of MPEG-4 AVC; MPEG DASH (Dynamic Adaptive Streaming over HTTP (DASH)) - simplifies and standardizes the adaptive delivery of video to consumer devices, ensuring a better quality of service, greater efficiency and opening opportunities for monetization; and eMBMS (Evolved Multimedia Broadcast Multicast Service) - a 3GPP standard that enables mobile networks to offer broadcast/multicast services dynamically to offload issues of popular content in dense consumption scenarios, reducing the cost of service delivery over the radio network and for backhaul.