The telco yesterday launched the service, retransmitting live the ABC and SBS continuously, as well as transmitting CNN's international service. Optus spokesperson Germaine Graham told ZDNet Australia there was currently no charge for viewing the shows, and the bandwidth used to transmit the data is also free. The Optus Zoo Web site indicates this will be the case until at least 1 April next year.
"We are giving our customers a whole suite of mobile data services," said Graham. "Our research has shown that TV is something people are interested in."
Optus has taken a different tack to other mobile phone carriers by emphasising the ability to surf the Internet on 2.5G phones rather than supplying a "walled-garden" of content to its users. Graham said Optus remained committed to this approach, and emphasised that users do not need specially configured phones to access Optus' content.
The new service will be available on Optus Zoo, which will also offer video downloads of Channel 10 Sports Tonight, news from wires services, Channel Seven Finance News Updates, new Java games, and other content designed for multi-media mobile phones.
The streaming TV will be available on capable handsets including the Nokia 3650, Nokia 3660, Nokia 6600, Nokia N-Gage and O2 xda. The other Zoo content will be available on most data-capable handsets.
Despite predictions of further growth in mobile subscribers over the next few years, mobile carriers are concerned about continued revenue growth, and are implementing plans to increase their average revenue per user (ARPU) - on the basis that it is easier to sell more to a current customer than it is to obtain a new customer. Optus recently reported growth in mobile services revenue of 19 percent.
