Death of analog TV could benefit telecoms

The upcoming death of analog TV broadcasting may save the U.S. cellular providers from one of the risks of an open handset — the deployment of cellphones able to tune into analog TV. This type of phone is sold by ZTE in China, where analog service will continue for another six years.

There may be a link between the open handset programs and the death of analog, in fact, because the use of cellphones to tune free TV would likely hurt telecoms’ mobile TV plans. We’re hearing that a number of firms are now looking at two dodges to the “no-analog” problem; one is working on a tuner for digital TV small enough to carry in a handset, and the other is looking at using Wi-Fi or WiMAX to deliver DVB-H TV in broadcast mode only, selling advertising to pay the bills.