I'd read about this sort of thing happening in Australia and other places when there were big sporting events and I sort of reconciled what sounded like a very gimmicky and desperate attempt to make money with the fact that there were probably some people who were so fanatical about their sport that they'd be prepared, when away from proper TV sets, to follow games on their cellphones, even if they couldn't see a damn thing or have to guess where the ball was.
Then my children cajoled me in to getting the phone MTN have been advertising during its test period and I have to admit that I have been wrong about the whole idea of watching TV on a cellphone.
The screen on Samsung's SGH-P910 is actually the same size as my current cellphone so it's not as though I have to lug a portable TV set around in my pocket. MTN are currently enabling about 10 n channels... mostly off DSTv - a few SuperSport channels, particularly soccer, CNN, Fashion, SABC and several others.
All one does is push the little button marked "TV" and twist the screen round horizontal. There's also a little pull-out TV aerial but I have very rarely needed it.
The images are incredibly sharp and, much to my surprise, one can actually follow a football match quite clearly. Watching TV on a cellphone with a screen, say 45mm x 35mm, at arm's length is about the same as watching a normal 54cm domestic TV set from about 2.5 metres away.
The colour is superb and what I didn't realise was that the signal is not coming via the Internet or via the MTN 3G cellphone services. It is a plain and simple television transmission and this is what makes it so clear.
So, from being a cynic, I am now completely converted. It's wonderful for a news junkie like me because what I have done is subcribe to CNN's SMS news alerts. So now, whenever any dramatic event happens anywhere in the world, I get an SMS and immediately turn on my TV phone and get the absolute latest news.
So MTN, sorry I doubted you. This is a great idea. And take my word for it, you can stop all this testing business and just get on with it. It works.
