Streaming NBA Games Available For iPhone, Android Phones ( Yearly fee of $40.)

The National Basketball Association is now offering mobile phone owners the ability to watch entire live games for $40 per year.

Just a few games into the 2009-2010 NBA season, this is the first time entire games are available for streaming -- only game highlights were previously available through an official service.

There are now three methods to watch complete games in the NBA: via TV, PC, or now using a mobile phone. Initial estimates report 59M mobile phone owners have the ability to watch streaming NBA games using their mobile phones.

The coverage is available through AT&T and T-Mobile, with Verizon Wireless beginning service on November 6. Apple iPhone and Google Android phone owners have access to the streaming feature now, but RIM owners are expected to have streaming NBA coverage at some point in the near future.

..."On iPhone (see gallery of screenshots), the 3G stream, which AT&T ratchets down to start at 240 Kbps, crapped out on me (author of piece) a bit, which sucks if you’ve paid 40 bucks for it. NBA Digital general manager Bryan Perez said to expect streaming quality to improve over the course of the season. “Convenience can be just as important as the content itself,” Perez said. “Just because it’s not in HD doesn’t mean it’s not adding tremendous value to your quality of life.”
"Along with the big-money video app, NBA Digital is upgrading last year’s Game Time app to a paid version ($9.99) and still giving out a free “Lite” version. "
I have an iPhone but am not always in a 3G area. 4G is the next technology to be fully developed wireless. Equipment maker, Tellabs (TLAB), just bought WiChorus a wireless packet core specialist. Tellabs says WiChorus has that advantage because it has been developed as a purpose-built platform for so-called "4G" networks -- Long Term Evolution (LTE) and WiMax -- and is also backwards-compatible to 3G. Cisco had just acquired Starent for 2.9 bil. Tellabs paid $180 million for the newer startup.

Television is not available where I am via phone. So if a carrier advertises all the bells and whistles it doesn't mean if you are outside the core network that you will get all this just yet. The telecoms & equipment makers are just doing their "good thing" while government meddles into the lives of other institutions and industries. Acquisitions of young start-ups is a sign the telecoms are moving again. Entrepreneurship at its finest.

No bailouts for those that suffered losses in the Telecoms, however; when "a few bad apples" soured investors on the whole basket of anything telecom.

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