One2One trials video emails on mobiles

One2One has teamed up with Israeli streaming software specialist, GEO, to look into providing video emails over GSM mobile phones.

The UK's smallest national GSM network operator will conduct a trial with a group of what it calls 'heavy-airtime' customers, to garner opinions on being able to send and receive video transmissions.

The nascent service is made possible through use of GEO's Emblaze Messaging technology. GEO partner Planet Online will provide the back-end hosting and communications bandwidth facilities for the project.

Adi Diament, GEO executive VP product development, said: "The quality is reasonable. For talking heads, you can get about five frames per second over a 9.6Kbps [GSM data rate] connection."

He denied the picture quality will be 'pixelated', and said users do not have to wait for third-generation (3G) UMTS technology in three years or so - or even '2.5G' GSM upgrade technologies in the meantime such as GPRS (General Packet Radio Service) - to start using multimedia services.

Henry Harrison, senior consultant at Schema, said: "There are so many business plans out there right now for mobile operators that depend on the use of video. The operators have to be seen to be doing something, and testing technology out."

He added that the concept of a video postcard may even take off before the type of videoconferencing that is being touted by rival Orange.

Last November GEO entered an agreement with Samsung Electronics - the fourth-largest and fastest-growing manufacturer of phone handsets, according to the latest Dataquest figures - to incorporate its Emblaze technology using ASIC chips into CDMA-based handhelds. CDMA is a competing standard to GSM used widely in North America and Asia.