UPDATE: DiGi confirms that Astro Mobile TV is meant to be used with digiwap APN.
DiGi now offers Astro Mobile TV on your 3G Mobile which they are also giving a 7 day free trial to try it out. iPhone users are able to watch it via Astro B.Player which was previously used by Maxis for live World Cup broadcast.
In terms of Live TV, there are 4 Channels – Bloomberg, History, Astro Hitz TV and Awani with 2 more channels (Crime and Investigation & Bio) coming soon. The other contents are looped channels and Video On Demand which are basically replays of selected segments such as Akademi Fantasia, Raja Lawak, Miss Astro 2010 and Vaanavil Super Star 2010.
The playback on 3G was rather smooth but the quality is nothing to shout about as the original video resolution is about 160×120. So don’t expect to read the tiny scrolling text on Bloomberg. Despite that it’s still worth to watch while being stuck in traffic or on the train. Of course, this isn’t as good as DVB-H based Mobile Live TV.
So how much is it to watch? After the 7 days trial period, you have a choice of RM1.50 per channel per week or RM5.00 per channel per month. There are no additional data charge to view the channels so that’s a flat rate without worrying about excess data usage. However DiGi didn’t mention if there’s any specific APN to access. In the previous experience of Facebook Zero, the FREE usage is only applicable if you’re using digiwap APN so this might be the case for Mobile TV too.
For more info, head to DiGi’s Astro Mobile TV promo page. Don’t forget to check out the FAQ for more details.
If you’re reading this from your mobile device on DiGi, click here to get started.
