The days of watching movie trailers, participating in video training sessions, or monitoring businesses remotely may be close at hand. NTT DoCoMo and PacketVideo Corp. have jointly developed technology for converting streamed video for delivery to cell phones and PDAs over third-generation wireless networks. The live-video-distribution technology will debut Oct. 1, when NTT launches its hotly anticipated 3G service, dubbed Freedom of Mobile Multimedia Access.

At the same time, NTT will begin a five-month testing period. During that time, potential business applications will be tested by a consortium of 32 companies that hope to use the service to do everything from monitoring retail stores and airport facilities to delivering internal video data and distance learning to remote workers. Among the companies participating in the consortium are IBM Japan, Mitsubishi, Northwest Airlines, and PricewaterhouseCoopers.

Jim Brailean, CEO of PacketVideo, says NTT's decision to use PacketVideo's streaming technologies should help the company meet its goal of reaching profitability by late 2002. Wireless multimedia delivery is far closer to reality in Japan than it is in the United States, but Brailean says his company is seeing increased interest in video applications among American companies. He says that as more wireless carriers roll out network upgrades to faster Code Division Multiple Access technology, multimedia services designed to take advantage of the improved bandwidth will begin to appear. "We're less that 12 months from seeing these services here," Brailean says.

Nicholas Lim, principal of the multimedia-focused Chosun Consulting Group, says that once all the pieces are in place in the United States for high-speed wireless delivery of video, he's confident demand will follow. For the time being, Lim says, the key is to drive the development of useful wireless video applications that can eventually yield a return on investment.

However, Gartner analyst P.J. McNealy says he's skeptical that a business model exists for wireless video delivery in the United States. According to McNealy, the Japanese are more comfortable accessing multimedia on small-format devices than Americans are; he has yet to see a significant increase here in the streaming of multimedia to networked PCs other than for distance learning.