Microsoft will soon announce a partnership with British Telecom Group and Virgin Mobile to launch a mobile TV service in the United Kingdom, a source close to the software giant confirmed.
For the past several months, BT has been building a network to broadcast digital TV over mobile phone networks. BT said in January that it plans to offer the network, called BT Movio, to mobile carriers that want to offer TV service to their customers.
The first mobile operator to use the BT network to deliver TV service is Virgin Mobile. The two companies conducted a trial last year for four months with roughly 1,000 users in London. Virgin Mobile plans to launch the service sometime this summer. Consumers can expect to get at least five TV stations as part of the initial launch, along with a number of radio channels.
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