Digital terrestrial broadcasting in Japan specifies a service profile not only for fixed receivers in the home, but also for personal mobile terminals such as acellular phones and PDAs. Services for personal mobile terminals are expected to become more attractive with sufficient functionality and flexibility by utilizing the network connectivity of mobile terminals. In order to verify the possibilities of digital television broadcasting (DTV) services for personal mobile terminals and clarify technical problems at the commercial level, we developed a prototype mobile terminal capable of receiving digital terrestrial broadcasting in addition to the Internet. This paper describes the assumed DTV service for personal mobile terminals and the technical architecture of the developed mobile terminal with regard to the hardware and the software. Several experiments using the developed mobile terminal were conducted and the performance was evaluated.

This paper describes an experiment that evaluated the feasibility and advantages of mobile data broadcasting services that will be launched in Japan in 2006. Network-linked services and location-aware services are distinct applications of the mobile broadcasting services. The network-linked services will enable users to obtain content data from broadcast and communication networks, while the location-aware services provide each user with location-based information. The experiment was performed with the prototype receivers receiving actual broadcast waves and data from the mobile Internet. The trial service contents and the prototype broadcast system were also developed. We discuss the appropriate distribution of broadcast and network content.