Heise Online tested the Debitel mobile TV service in Cologne with the Samsung SGH P-900. Here a summary of what they found:

• reception was overall very good, also worked in short tunnels (50m), in the car at 180km/h and up to 16km outside of Cologne
• all four TV channels (MTV,M24, ZDF, watcha Entertainment) and video clips could be watched with excellent quality
• the P900 display worked very well when not in direct daylight operation, otherwise the strong display reflections were tiring for the eyes
• bird's eye views such as in soccer stadiums, or fast zoom in-and-outs make it very hard to keep following the action such as e.g. the soccer ball (TV channels are shown unchanged from the normal TV broadcasts)
• storage is easy and a 10min video takes 10MB, one still picture 150KB
• stored clips and pictures can only be displayed on the P900 or an external TV but not stored otherwise to protect copyrights
• P900 features: EDGE and GPRS, 80MB storage, 2 MPixel camera, 2.2" QVGA 90 degree swivel display, 320x240 with 25fps
• service costs 10-15 EUR per month, the P900 200 EUR (600 EUR without 2 year contract)

While the countdown has started for the Soccer World Cup in Germany,
finally the full picture of who does what with mobile TV is becoming clear.

Debitel is bringing its own DMB-based service to the market. The network independent provider will start in some major cities and then provide 75% coverage for Germany in 2007. Behind the offering is the small startup MFD that got the license. Debitel has 8.7 million customers in Germany. Samsung is providing the phones for the launch (SGH-P900). Now it's becoming clearer why last week's joint announcement by the 4 major mobile operators happened. While at first sight looking like dominance plus a better service (16 TV channels vs. Debitel's 4), they can only provide a small trial with a few thousand selected customers. In contrast, Debitel, whose business it is to sell services NOW rather than doing trials for years, went out and did something that can be brought to market quickly with sufficient features.

One more proof why the mobile operators need a company like Debitel.