Despite the structure of the company undergoing a radical overhaul, Motorola has announced a 3G touchscreen mobile phone that can receive and record DVB-H TV broadcasts. Interestingly, the company has decided to use the Linux operating system to drive the new DH02 handset, which will be initially launched outside the US.

The DH02, which weighs 240 grams, has a screen refresh rate of 25 frames per second and can record around 90 minutes of video onto a 256MB SD/MMC card. Even without a card, Motorola said that the device has a five-minute memory buffer for live pause and time shift of TV. Battery life is claimed to be four hours.
According to Anya Chambers of Motorola, the DH02 is aimed at markets outside the US where DVB-H is far more prevalent. Although the US FCC has not yet allocated any spectrum for enabling digital-TV broadcasts using DVB-H, “we think it could open up in the later part of 2008 or 2009,” Chambers said.

DVB-H is already established in several dozen countries, and is most firmly established in Europe, with commercial services available in Italy, Finland and other countries. Motorola also sells DVB-H broadcasting equipment.