Spanish company Abertis Telecom is fine-tuning a Digital Video Broadcasting Handheld Network (DVB-H) that allows cell phones to receive and play signals broadcast directly from TV towers, according to The Wall Street Journal. This would allow people to watch digitally broadcast TV programming on their cell phones as it’s being shown on regular TV. From the WSJ:

Abertis’s television-tower and satellite broadcasting is an improvement over other technologies that provide video “because it doesn’t require a large bandwidth and a broadcaster can send out a signal for an infinite amount of users,” says Abertis Telecom’s head of development, Xavier Padilla.

But the company is running into a little static from phone service providers, as Abertis’s technology allows users to pluck video transmissions directly from the TV broadcaster, sidestepping mobile provider fees. Broadcasters don’t care because they make money from the ads being shown.

Abertis has been testing DVB-H since 2006. Nokia has pledged to put it in its new N96 models and others with TV capabilities, while in Japan, a free mobile-television network similar to DVB-H that was made available some 18 months ago has 17 million users. DVB-H is on trial here in the U.S., but with the service cutting into the juicy fees of cell companies, expect some kind of fight before you find this mobile network in your hand.