TeliaSonera, Nokia, Others In Mobile Video Sharing Trials"

BERLIN -(Dow Jones)- The GSM mobile telecommunications industry association, or GSMA, said Wednesday it has begun interoperability trials on three continents to ensure that mobile users will be able to share video across networks.

The initiative is being led by Swedish operator TeliaSonera. Successful completion of the trials, taking place in Europe, Asia and the U.S., will ensure that so-called video share services work smoothly across networks and national boundaries from launch.

The GSMA has brought companies, including Ericsson, LG Electronics, Lucent Technologies, Motorola, Nokia, NEC, Samsung Electronics, Siemens and Sony-Ericsson, for the trials to ensure that this service will work across as many mobile devices as possible.

Other technology companies, such as Intel, are also participating in the trials.

The trials are due to be completed in the first half of 2006. Video share allows one of the participants in a voice call to send live video of what they are looking at to the other participant. Operators expect video share to be a highly popular service used by people to exchange everything from live video postcards on holiday to footage of a school sports day to video of a house for sale.

The tests make use of a technology called IP Multimedia Subsystem, or IMS, to allow users to share video clips across both fixed and mobile networks in a fast and efficient way. IMS is a network architecture that many operators plan to use to deliver new services to mobile users.

(END) Dow Jones Newswires "

Posted to the site on 15th February 2006