IN RECENT years the mobile phone has turned into an electronic jack-of-all-trades, the remote control for everyday life, a digital equivalent of the Swiss Army knife. A modern handset can function as a digital camera, music player, radio, games console and messaging device, as well as being a phone. On January 10th, trials began in South Korea of a new service that incorporates yet another device into the handset: television. TU Media, a joint venture between SK Telecom and Toshiba, a Japanese electronics firm, began beaming three of a planned 12 mobile-TV channels to special handsets, a service for which it plans to charge subscribers $11 a month. In Europe and America, meanwhile, Nokia, the world's leading handset-maker, is also testing mobile TV services: the most elaborate trial so far, with 500 users, will start soon in the English city of Oxford, in conjunction with O2, a European operator.

TV on your phone