European Commission officially endorses mobile TV standard

Michelle Donegan

March 18, 2008

1 Min Read
Europe Digs DVB-H

2:25 PM -- European Commissioner Viviane Reding has gotten her way on mobile TV and won backing to get the digital video broadcast – handheld (DVB-H) mobile broadcast standard added to the official list of EU standards. (See EC Endorses DVB -H, Reding Riles Mobile TV Players, and Battles Brew Over Mobile TV.)

This doesn't mean there is now a mobile TV technology mandate in Europe that says, "You must deploy DVB-H." Rather, the decision is more like an official request that says, "We really, really want you to use this DVB-H standard, please, so that we can all work together and have one nice, big, happy mobile TV market in Europe." The European Commission can't force anyone to adopt DVB-H. (See Is Mobile TV Doomed?, MTV: Show Me the $, and Mobile TV Italian Style.)

And U.K. regulator Ofcom, for one, isn't interested in technology suggestions from Brussels. The regulator just released details for a spectrum auction in the 1452 – 1492 MHz frequency band, or "L-band," which is suitable for mobile TV. But Ofcom is not going so far as to say what technologies should be used in this frequency. (See Ofcom Auctions Mobile TV Spectrum.)

The U.K. L-band auction is likely to start at the end of next month and the deadline to apply is April 10. Ofcom says that possible uses for this spectrum include mobile TV using various different technologies, satellite digital radio, and broadband wireless access or "high-speed Internet on the move."

— Michelle Donegan, European Editor, Unstrung

About the Author(s)

Michelle Donegan

Michelle Donegan is an independent technology writer who has covered the communications industry for the last 20 years on both sides of the Pond. Her career began in Chicago in 1993 when Telephony magazine launched an international title, aptly named Global Telephony. Since then, she has upped sticks (as they say) to the UK and has written for various publications including Communications Week International, Total Telecom and, most recently, Light Reading.  

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