was a mobile

satellite A satellite or an artificial satellite is an object, typically a spacecraft, placed into orbit around a celestial body. They have a variety of uses, including communication relay, weather forecasting, navigation ( GPS), broadcasting, scient ...

digital audio/video subscription based

broadcasting Broadcasting is the data distribution, distribution of sound, audio audiovisual content to dispersed audiences via a electronic medium (communication), mass communications medium, typically one using the electromagnetic spectrum (radio waves), ...

service in

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

, whose services began on October 20, 2004 and ended on March 31, 2009 at 3:00 pm Japan time. MobaHO! used the

ISDB Integrated Services Digital Broadcasting (ISDB; Japanese: , ''Tōgō dejitaru hōsō sābisu'') is a Japanese broadcasting standard for digital television (DTV) and digital radio. ISDB supersedes both the NTSC-J analog television system and ...

digital broadcast specification. The satellite, MBSat 1, providing this service was jointly owned by

SK Telecom SK Telecom Co., Ltd., abbreviated as SKT ( or ) is a South Korean wireless telecommunications operator and former film distributor and is part of the SK Group, one of the country's largest chaebols. It leads the local market with 50.5 perce ...

of South Korea and Mobile Broadcasting Corporation (MBCO) of Japan; TU, South Korea's now defunct

S-DMB S-DMB (Satellite-DMB) was a hybrid version of the Digital Multimedia Broadcasting. The S-DMB used the S band (2170-2200 MHz) of IMT-2000. and delivered around 18 channels at 128 kbit/s in 15 MHz. It incorporated a high power geosta ...

mobile television service under SK Telecom, used to share same satellite. A number of receivers were available for this service: portable receivers with built-in QVGA LCD screens, car-use, a laptop-use

PC card PC Card is a technical standard specifying an expansion card interface for laptops and personal digital assistants, PDAs. The PCMCIA originally introduced the 16-bit Industry Standard Architecture, ISA-based PCMCIA Card in 1990, but renamed it to ...

receiver, a mobile phone (by DoCoMo) and more.

Satellite

The service used the MBSat 1 (Mobile Broadcasting Satellite, also known as Hanbyul, COSPAR 2004-007A) satellite. The satellite was a joint venture of SK Telecom of South Korea and Mobile Broadcasting Corporation of Japan. The satellite was launched 13.03.2004 on an Atlas IIIA rocket. It was a Geostationary orbit (GEO) satellite, located at 120 degrees West. The broadcasting of the satellite ceased 31 March 2009. After the bankruptcy of MobaHO!, the satellite was sold to Asia Broadcasting Satellite (ABS) of China in 2013 and moved to 75 degrees East and renamed ABS 2i. Later it was named ABS 4 (Mobisat).

Technical information

This service used ISO MPEG-4 Version 1 Simple Profile @ L3 video and

AAC AAC may refer to: Aviation * Advanced Aircraft, a company from Carlsbad, California * Airborne aircraft carrier, a type of aircraft * Alaskan Air Command, a radar network * American Aeronautical Corporation, a company from Port Washington, New ...

audio encapsulated in

MPEG transport stream MPEG transport stream (MPEG-TS, MTS) or simply transport stream (TS) is a standard digital container format for transmission and storage of audio, video, and Program and System Information Protocol (PSIP) data. It is used in broadcast syst ...

. The maximum supported resolution was 320x240 pixels (QVGA), and the maximum video bitrate was 384 kbit/s at a frame rate of 15 frames per second. Audio conformed to the ISO/IEC 13818-7 AAC LC (Low Complexity) profile, with maximum bitrate of 144 kbit/s and sampling rates up to 48 kHz. The transmission was scrambled using the MULTI2 cipher for conditional access. This service was broadcast over 2.6 GHz

S-band The S band is a designation by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) for a part of the microwave band of the electromagnetic spectrum covering frequencies from 2 to 4 gigahertz (GHz). Thus it crosses the convention ...

by MBSat at 144.0°E. Left Circular polarized beam covered Japan, while Right Circular polarized beam covered South Korea. These beams were intended to be received by portable devices with omni-directional antennas. A single 150 W

Ku band The Ku band () is the portion of the electromagnetic spectrum in the microwave range of frequencies from 12 to 18 gigahertz (GHz). The symbol is short for "K-under" (originally ), because it is the lower part of the original NATO K ban ...

transponder on MBSat, operated at 12.226 GHz and

Symbol rate In a digitally modulated signal or a line code, symbol rate, modulation rate or baud is the number of symbol changes, waveform changes, or signaling events across the transmission medium per unit of time. The symbol rate is measured in '' baud ...

of 18433 was used to broadcast identical contents to "Gap-fillers" (re-transmission devices) which were planned to be installed in train stations and subways, and other areas where the S-band satellite beam would not reach. This repeater broadcast was also scrambled using MULTI2.

Financial issues

The company had expected to attract a million subscribers by 2008, but had only reached about a hundred thousand. The company ceased operations on March 31, 2009.

Receiver devices

MTV-S10 by Toshiba, 4E-MB1 by SHARP, MBR0101B by MBCO, MBT0102A by MBCO -

type. This was the only device which allowed recording broadcasts. However,

DRM DRM may refer to: Government, military and politics * Defense reform movement, U.S. campaign inspired by Col. John Boyd * Democratic Republic of Madagascar, a former socialist state (1975–1992) on Madagascar * Direction du renseignement militair ...

technology was used to prohibit playback of recorded content without the receiver card present. Hardware encryption chip and presumably receiver serial number was used to encrypt the recording. * Mobile phone: Music Porter X by DoCoMo * and more

Program Channels

MobaHO! broadcast eight video channels to its subscribers, as well as a wide array of audio channels. Most MobaHO! music channels were produced in-house and featured popular genre in the Japanese and Korean languages for their respective markets. They also carried several commercial and non-commercial FM stations from the west coast of the United States for English language, American Pop, Hip-Hop, Jazz, and various forms of old and new Rock. Toward the end, they also carried New York City's WQXR, America's highest rated Classical music station, then owned by the

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

. With a licensed bandwidth equal to that of both Sirius and XM, MobaHO! was able to offer approximately thirty predominantly music, audio channels plus seven video channels, including news, horse racing, and family and children's programming.

References