The pilot will start in October in central London and Slough, and run for three months, the three operators said. Their goal is to assess how mobile broadcast services can be deployed using a shared network infrastructure.

It is too soon to say when IMB-based services will be available commercially, according to Yves Bellégo, director of technical and network strategy at Orange. However, once IMB is ready to be rolled out, Bellégo expects to see the technology built into smartphones and tablet PCs.

For users, the adoption of IMB will mean better picture quality compared to TV streamed over existing 3G networks. It also lets operators offer more channels, according to IPWireless, which develops chipsets and software for IMB and, together with Ericsson, is providing the equipment for the trial.

Today, mobile operators are looking at various ways to offload traffic from their main network, to better cope with the growing amount of data traffic, and IMB can help them with that, according to the operators.

Besides radio and TV, IMB can also be used for content downloads, according to Bellégo.