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MTN said on Monday it was selling the Samsung P910 TV cell phone and that customers who buy the handset could sign up to a free trial for access to 11 channels via Naspers' pay-TV service DStv using Digital Video broadcasting-Handheld (DVB-H) technology.
But it cannot sell the service commercially until Multichoice, the Naspers unit that runs DStv, is granted a mobile broadcasting licence by South Africa's communications regulator.
"This is a revolution in lifestyle. You will be watching TV differently," MTN South Africa's head of business strategy and product innovation, Ashraff Paruk, told a presentation.
Paruk said he hoped Multichoice would get a licence in the first quarter of 2007, allowing South Africa to join only two countries in the world - Italy and Vietnam - in which mobile TV has launched commercially so far.
Several other countries have tested the technology.
Deal with Multichoice not exclusive
MTN said the 11-channel package - a scaled-down version of Africa's only pay-TV network DStv - would include news channels CNN and BCC, sports channels and movies.
Paruk said MTN did not have an exclusive deal with Multichoice, which means rival operators Vodacom and Cell C could reach similar deals.
MTN and Vodacom have touted mobile TV as a crucial new technology ahead of 2010, when South Africa hosts the soccer World Cup.
Access to mobile TV via the MTN trial is available only in South Africa's main cities - Johannesburg, Pretoria and Cape Town and in Soweto. The company said it was working to extend the network.
Paruk declined to say how much the service would cost but said he hoped it would be cheaper than the R419 per month it costs to access DStv's 55 channels on a conventional TV.
MTN is offering the Samsung P910 to customers on its MyCall 100 contract for an extra R299. James Munn, Samsung South Africa's vice president for mobile phones, said the phone had a recommended retail value of about R4 000.
