Samsung, Bouygues Telecom, TF1 and VDL have teamed up in France to offer DMB! The first live user tests should begin soon.

Samsung Electronics, Bouygues Telecom, TF1 and VDL Collaborate to Provide the First Terrestrial DMB Trial Service in France

Seoul, Korea – Feb 14th, 2006: Samsung Electronics, Korea based leading telecom systems and mobile handset provider, Bouygues Telecom, France’s mobile operator, TF1, France’s mobile TV operator, and VDL, France’s digital network provider and equipment manufacturer, have agreed to cooperate in the area of T-DMB (Terrestrial Digital Media Broadcasting) to provide the first trial service in France.

Samsung Electronics shipped its first T-DMB handsets for trial to Bouygues Telecom in January 06. Bouygues Telecom cooperated with TF1 and VDL, and will deliver trial services which are planned to begin at the end of this month. The T-DMB trial service by TF1, VDL and Bouygues Telecom is the first T-DMB trial service in France and it will be demonstrated to selected customers for evaluation. Based on the results of the trial service, further partnership may continue.

France is in the process of evaluating the business and technology standards of mobile TV services and the launch of a commercial service is expected to start shortly. Four parties have worked together since July 05 to engage in T-DMB mobile TV technology standards to start the trial service. The companies will continue to work together to assess the performance of the terrestrial DMB technology standard for France as well as develop various DMB phones and value-added DMB services.

Bouygues Telecom’s CTO, Mr. Passet , said, “We believe this trial service will be a great opportunity for users to experience new mobile TV services and for us to understand customer’s needs.“

TF1’s CTO, Mr. Bosom , said, “We are delighted to participate to this mobile trial service with Bouygues Telecom, VDL and Samsung. It brings us the opportunity to evaluate mobile TV technologies for future services“

VDL’s President, Mr. Andre-Masse, said, “We have been strongly involved since the beginning in the definition and development of T-DMB. We are really happy to cooperate with TF1, Bouygues and Samsung to assess T-DMB capacity to deliver mobile TV services.”

Samsung Electronics has already provided satellite and terrestrial DMB phones in Korea and agreed to supply 500,000 handsets to Chinese mobile TV operators for a commercial T-DMB service. Samsung is actively cooperating with other European operators for the commercial launching of a mobile TV service targeting the 2006 World Cup soccer games.

Kitae Lee, President of Telecommunications Network Business at Samsung Electronics said, “We are glad to take another step in mobile TV market with Bouygues Telecom and TF1. The world mobile TV market will grow rapidly this year and we will continue to lead the global DMB phone market with advanced mobile TV technologies”