Virgin Mobile
Lobster 700TV

The Lobster 700TV phone was announced by the Virgin Mobile network in the UK in September 2006. It supported Digital Audio Broadcast (DAB) technology with content provided by BT Wholesale's mobile broadcast entertainment service, BT Movio. This enabled around 85 percent of the UK population to watch TV and listen to the radio on the phone. The phone was powered by Microsoft's Windows Mobile 5 Smartphone operating system and supported 2.5G (GPRS) network technology. It was the world's first DAB-IP-enabled handset and was dubbed the "Tellyphone" by Virgin Mobile. About 25,000 were produced by HTC, which also sold the device under the HTC Monet name. Another variant was sold in the US to support the Modeo broadcasting service. Virgin Mobile had already produced other Lobster-branded phones for its network; the name was inspired by Salvador Dali's Lobster Telephone, which transformed the receiver of a desk phone into a crustacean. To accommodate the extra components of a DAB receiver, the Lobster 700 sported a unique bump on one side of its casing. The technology design and integration work was led by Martin Orrell at TTP Com. DMD Secure provided the DRM protection for TV channels, with Microsoft providing the streaming servers. All transmission equipment was installed in the BT Tower. Martin Coggin, the CTO of BT Movio, was responsible for the end-to-end system, with Steve Embling, Adam Child and Alan Heighway managing the device programme. Emma Lloyd was managing director of BT Movio. The service went live in October 2006 and was available free of charge to Virgin Mobile customers subscribing to a £25 monthly contract. It initially offered access to three UK channels (BBC1, ITV1 and E4) as well as 50 digital radio stations. The handset could also be purchased without a contract for £199, and after a free three-month trial period users had to pay £5 per month to access TV channels, except for BBC1, which remained free to air. Getting the BBC to agree to join the project was an incredible feat, as it had previously only released content for mobile through its own applications. The fact that BT chairman Sir Christopher Bland had previously chaired the BBC's Board of Governors, may possibly have contributed to the decision. Early on, BT Movio ran into problems with the rights to broadcast certain programmes; major sporting events and films were excluded from the mobile transmissions. Delays in securing broadcast rights meant Channel 4 did not join the channel line-up until December 2006. A dedicated ITN News channel completed the offering. Virgin invested heavily to promote the new service by hiring "world-famous actress" Pamela Anderson to lead a £2.5 million advertising campaign (see below). The ads were first seen on British TV on 9 October 2006.  At the time, some observers speculated whether the decision to feature Pamela Anderson was indicative of future plans to offer additional types of programming, especially adult content. The reality was that less than 250 kbps was available for the five TV channels available. The limit was regulated by the Act of Parliament governing the use of the UK DAB network and had been set to protect the radio broadcast industry. BT Movio managed to get a legal amendment increasing the data limit of a DAB multiplex from 10 percent to 20 percent. At under 50 kbps per channel, though, this was still an incredibly challenging technical environment for live TV. Some screen shots from the service are included below: Unfortunately, within a year Virgin Mobile announced that the TV service would be discontinued in early 2008. This was triggered by BT Movio cancelling its broadcast TV contract with GCap Media, although it was widely thought that poor take-up of the service contributed to the decision. Virgin Mobile customers with a Lobster 700 were no longer able to access TV content, but they could still listen to DAB radio stations free of charge. In fact, consumer research carried out by BT Movio showed that although customers initially bought the Lobster for the novelty of mobile TV, they soon converted to regular radio users as the service's electronic programme guide gave such easy access to content. At the time, Virgin Mobile stated that it was "proud to have led the way in offering the first broadcast mobile TV service in the UK." BT Movio played a large part in this, managing to launch a nationwide service with simulcast top-tier TV channels and a dedicated mobile device for less than £20 million, a fraction of the cost of the DVB-H investments that were going on elsewhere around the world. The service was wildly ahead of its time. With the advent of 3G technology it became clear that it would be increasingly viable to share streamed video content using mobile data services, rather than a dedicated broadcasting stream. The way people watched video changed as a result, with audiences wanting on-demand services rather than viewing channels programmed to a strict schedule. Nowadays it is taken for granted that all forms of video and TV content can be easily watched on a smartphone. The Mobile Phone Museum owns one of five giant versions of the Lobster 700TV that were made to promote the Virgin Mobile service. They were manufactured in the Philippines and were almost lost at sea when the boat delivering them to the UK was hit by Typhoon Xangsane in the Pacific. Luckily, these giant phones arrived just in time for the huge launch event, which saw the top 20 BT offices around the country decked out with Lobster paraphernalia. But all was not well. By 11 AM on the day of the launch, Ian Livingstone and Gavin Patterson, heads of BT Retail and Wholesale respectively, were having a heated exchange in the office of CEO Ben Verwaayen, as the Lobster promotion conflicted with BT Retail's reseller relationship with Vodafone. The Lobster launch paraphernalia was eventually removed and the BT Movio staff advised to make themselves scarce for a few days. They were soon moved out of BT's headquarters into a dingy office in Holborn, above a toy model shop. The Lobster 700TV handset and the service it offered is another good example of a product that was ahead of its time. It is a historically important milestone in the story of how video became a mass-market mobile phenomenon. Additional information supplied by Martin Coggin and Dominic Strowbridge Lobster 700TV featured in What Mobile Magazine in November 2006: