Nokia, Intel, Motorola and other wireless equipment makers announced the formation of the Mobile DTV Alliance, which will promote an open standard - Digital Video Broadcasting-Handheld (DVB-H) - for live TV on mobile phones, reports the Financial Times. Texas Instruments and Crown Castle International, which is building a DVB-H network in the U.S., are also members.

"As mobile video entertainment gains increased awareness and achieves greater availability, the Alliance will focus on promoting the best practices and open standards that deliver premium-quality broadcast television to mobile devices for the North American market," the companies said.

The alliance poses a challenge to Qualcomm, which supports a proprietary technology called Media Flow. Both it and DVB-H technologies intend to enable mobile carriers to provide video without overloading wireless networks. In the U.S, Verizon Wireless and Sprint Nextel are expected to adopt Media Flow.

More than 10 DVB-H network trials have been concluded or are underway in Australia, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, the U.K., U.S. and elsewhere - by 2007 most U.S. major markets are expected to have DVB-H infrastructure built out and ready for deployment, according to the announcement.

"The mobile TV market is heating up, with both trials and deployments accelerating over the next 12-18 months," said David Linsalata, research analyst for mobile markets at IDC. "The support of key industry players in promoting the advantages of the DVB-H standard will significantly aid mobile TV deployment efforts in North America."