The 2012 Olympic Games will do for mobile TV what the Coronation did for early television, an industry expert has predicted, as mobile operators face the decision over which technology to use.

It will, it is argued, make tuning in on your mobile phone to watch the men's 100 metres final, rowing's coxless fours, or the latest in the gymnastics as second nature as sending a text message.

But preparation for that future will gather pace next month with the auction of the L-Band spectrum, which is well-suited to the demands of mobile TV. It could prove to be the catalyst that forces the industry's big guns to make an early commitment to the technology that will take London 2012 to the mobile generation.

In Italy, Vodafone has chosen live mobile television using the Nokia-backed DVB-H (digital video broadcasting handheld), a technology that Viviane Reding, the European Telecoms Commissioner, has said should become the European standard.

Ofcom disagrees and has a technology-neutral stance to spectrum. UK options are, therefore, still open.

Of the four technologies available, Orange and T-Mobile have put their money on TDtv and this summer will start a pilot offering 24 television channels to several thousand people in West London. As partners, the two companies intend to share the cost of network rollout - estimated at hundreds of millions of pounds - and have invited the other networks to join them.

Jake Redford, the head of mobile TV at Orange, said: “We need to make this technology a success, and the only way to do that is to get the vast majority of operators to join.”

Analysts are sceptical. As one industry commentator put it, getting network operators to co-operate “is like herding cats”.

Next month's auction will be followed by two others that could also be applied to mobile TV - the 2.6 gigahertz spectrum, pencilled in for later this year, and the old analogue television spectrum, which is expected in spring next year and works with the DVB-H technology.

Moreover, the picture is complicated further by the varieties of technologies being developed. Other options are the DAB-based technology as used by BT and Virgin for their now-defunct BT Movio mobile TV service, which was withdrawn due to lack of demand, and Qualcomm's MediaFLO, which works well on the L-Band spectrum being auctioned by Ofcom next month.

At present mobile operators stream programmes over 3G, which can never be mass market because only a few people can use it in the same area before the network becomes congested. TDTV, on the other hand, is a broadcast technology.

The benefit of TDtv, developed by NextWave Wireless at its British unit in Wiltshire, is that it uses TDD, a small chunk of spectrum that four of the five operators (all except Vodafone) were given when they bought their share of the £22.5billion 3G spectrum in 2000. The downside is that TDD does not travel as well through walls as lower bandwidths, such as those used by analogue television, which is to end in 2012.

A further hurdle is getting the public to watch television on phones. Will Harris, of Enders Analysis, said: “We believe consumer demand for paid-for services is very limited.” A survey last year by Enders of more than 1,000 adults in Britain revealed that 79 per cent were “not at all” interested in paying £5 a month for mobile TV.

Advertising seems to be the obvious answer as to how operators will make any money from mobile TV. “It's a foundation for a very valuable advertising platform,” Phil Lehmann, senior product manager of T-Mobile's mobile TV division, said. “The Olympics will be to mobile TV what the Coronation was to television. It will be the point when people adopt a new technology.”

Times Recommends

• C&G axed - 1,660 jobs to be lost
• UK house prices rise 1.1% as buyers return
• Mixed reaction to US banks repaying bailouts