Three, the 3G mobile phone service provider backed by Hutchison Whampoa, are offering the first commercial delivery of streaming video to the 3G mobile-owning public of Sweden and Denmark.
Their customers have been able to watch the news streamed headlines by their nationa broadcasters Tidningarnas Telegrambyrå (TT – in Sweden) and TV2 (Denmark). Video clips have been available on mobile phone handsets before, but previously the clips have been downloaded to the handsets and then played, a subtle but important difference.
Tre, as they are know in Sweden, say this is due to their strength of their network and its ability to deliver significant amounts of bandwidth. Currently they charge five Swedish Kronor (0.38 UKP, 0.64 USD) for a video of thirty seconds to two minutes.