Croatia's Vipnet tests DVB-H

Vipnet presented together with Kapsch the test phase of the DVB-H standard to watch the TV program of NovaTV, CNN, Eurosport, and CMC on a mobile phone display at no extra charge

ZAGREB — Vipnet and Kapsch have launched the test phase of a DVB-H standard service that allows the watching of TV programmes on a mobile phone display. The first TV over DVB-H (Digital Video Broadcast-Handheld) signal in Croatia was a debate from the Croatian Parliament and after that skiing on Eurosport since Vipnet is a sponsor of the Croatian ski team.

Therefore Vipnet offers to watch ski races on Eurosport on mobile phones during next ten days for free. NovaTV, CNN and Croatian Music Channel are also available in the center of Zagreb as well as an in the eastern part of the city and in the Novi Zagreb area, on mobile phones that support DVB-H, such as Nokia N96, which is featured in Vip’s offer at a price starting at 891 kunas.

Vipnet is one of the first in the world to have successfully tested the latest technology for mobile broadband, HSPA+, and to have reached a speed of up to 21 Mbps for data download from the Internet. The Vip network will support the latest HSPA+ speeds from as early as in Spring in the major cities, and the customers will then experience a considerable increase in network capacity and speedier data download regardless of the speed supported by the Vodafone Mobile Connect device that they use to access the Internet. HSPA+ speeds require new devices to access the Internet and the manufacturers are expected to start with their delivery on the market in the second semester of this year. New technology for speed increase was presented in cooperation with the Ericsson Nikola Tesla. At the same time, Vipnet started to introduce the HSUPA 5.7 technology, which offers data upload speeds that are almost four times higher.

“The test results of the new technologies and standards show that the customers will be in a position to make an even better use of the benefits provided by mobile phones and broadband in our 3G network. With these tests Vipnet is preparing to continue investment cycle as they are necessary in crisis time. We believe our industry of moble communications has to follow modern technology” emphasized Mladen Pejković, CEO of Vipnet.

As the leading innovator on the Croatian market, Vipnet has continued to bring the latest technologies and standards and confirmed once more that it makes it possible for the Vip customers to follow the worldwide trends. As a matter of fact, Vipnet is the only one on the market to offer to the customers the possibility to watch TV on demand (video on demand) and live streaming, and with the test phase of the DVB-H standard it enables the broadcast of TV program with picture and sound of an exceptionally high quality. According to the surveys conducted in the countries where pilot projects have been developed or where DVB-H has been commercially launched, mobile television with short, entertaining and informative contents is interesting to the customers when they are traveling, taking a break at work or during other similar free time during the day.

As far as Internet access speeds are concerned, Vip customers can currently use data download at a speed of up to 7.2 Mbps and upload at a speed of up to 1.4 Mbps, which is comparable to the speeds available in fixed broadband.