EU backs standard for mobile TV
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The EU's decision to back a single standard for TV on mobiles could see the UK fall behind, warn analysts.
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European Commission may forbid the use of Qualcomm's mobile TV technology in Europe.
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About 26 wireless carriers and telecom equipment makers have agreed to develop an advanced mobile phone standard that will enable users to send and receive high-resolution video instantly, an official said Tuesday.
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Cell phone manufacturers are teaming up to bring mobile television to your handset.
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The move by the European Commission could spur growth in the fledgling but potentially lucrative mobile TV sector.
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A European project aims to change how people receive their digital entertainment in the future.
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The European Union's plans to regulate new media will threaten emerging services such as mobile phone clips and web-broadcasting, UK media watchdog Ofcom has warned.  The proposed Audiovisual Media Services (AVMS) directive is an extension of the regulations applied to TV.
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(InfoWorld) - With the support of German lawmakers, incumbent telecommunications operator Deutsche TelekomÂ is racing into a head-on clash with the European Commission over a decision to keep rival operators off its new high-speed broadband network. The upper house of the German parliament approved a revised telecommunications law on Friday. The law will allow partially state-owned Deutsche Telekom to ban competitors from using its VDSL (Very high bit-rate Digital Subscriber Line) network to sell services. The decision flies in the face of Commission legislation that mandates member states to force telecommunications companies with dominant positions -- in most cases former state-owned monopolies -- into opening their network infrastructure to rival operators on favorable terms. While Deutsche Telekom eventually opened its local-loop infrastructure under pressure from Brussels, the operator has fought attempts to allow competition on its new network. It argues that the VDSL network represents a new market for combined triple-play telephony, high-speed Internet and TV services, and new markets are protected under European Union law; in addition, it needs to protect its â¬3 billion ($3.9 billion) investment in the super high-speed network. German lawmakers have become slightly sympathetic to Deutsche Telekom, which has been bleeding fixed-line customers by the millions and consequentlyÂ forced to lower operating costs, largely through job cuts. Since its privatization, the operator has reduced its workforce from more than 250,000 at the peak to around 180,000 today. Over the years, Deutsche Telekom and the German government have clashed with Brussels on issues including the divestment of the operator's cable TV network and local-loop unbundling. In repeated warnings over the past several months, the Commission has said it will take whatever action is necessary to make Germany observe E.U. law. The issue could land in the European Court of Justice, which is responsible for handling E.U. treaty infringements. Court decisions can take years, however. Rival fixed-line operators, including ArcorÂ & Co., which is owned by the Vodafone Group, have made it clear they don't want the former monopoly telephone operator to be given any advantages to dominate another market as it has with the market for telephone service.
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Europeans are a step closer to having television on their mobile phones: Two groups of companies said they would push forward with consumer trials and establish a standard for the technology.
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Web media threatens to move out: take toys Ofcom, the UK telecommunications regulator, has said that a European Union plan to regulate video risks restricting innovation and even forcing companies to relocate outside the EU to avoid compliance.â¦
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The European Union&#39;s 27 governments gave the final OK Thursday to a law that will slash the cost of using a mobile phone abroad by around 70 percent, the German government said.
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(InfoWorld) - Qualcomm is offering mobile phone makers a choice of technologies to tune into mobile TV services. In addition to its MediaFlo broadcast system, the U.S. manufacturer unveiled the development of two new chips supporting alternative technologies at last week'sÂ 3GSM World CongressÂ in Barcelona. Qualcomm is pushing its own MediaFlo system as an alternative to the DVB-H (Digital Video Broadcasting - Handheld) standard supported by Nokia and Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications, or the Japanese ISDB-T (Integrated Services Digital Broadcasting - Terrestrial) system. But in Spain, it unveiled a "universal" chip that supports all three technologies. The company has also developed a new chip that supports Multimedia Broadcast Multicast Service (MBMS). This technology allows mobile phone network operators to offer streamed mobile TV services more efficiently by multicasting programs instead of having to establish point-to-point links for each device as they currently do. As a result, operators will be able to position their streaming services more competitively to meet future demands of mobile TV users during peak live TV broadcasts, such as sporting events and breaking news. "A big advantage of MBMS is that the technology will help operators better utilize their networks,' said Nitesh Patel, senior analyst with Strategy Analytics Ltd. But a drawback could be the lack of commitment by handset manufacturers to make phones, he added. A key focus of Qualcomm, however, is to establish its own MediaFlo as the technology of choice for operators entering the nascent market for mobile TV services, according to Andrew Gilbert, president of Qualcomm Europe. "Nokia and others are pushing hard for DVB-H to be the mobile TV standard in Europe but MediaFlo has some significant advantages," Gilbert said in an interview. The results of its trail with British Sky Broadcasting (BSkyB) indicate that MediaFlo would be able to cover either twice the geographical area per transmitter or deliver double the number of channels as DVB-H, according to Gilbert. And channel switching times are faster, he said. Under Qualcomm's patent licence policy technology, proprietary MediaFlo technology can be licensed for use in CDMA (Code Division Multiplex Access) and WCDMA (Wideband-CDMA) phones with no increase in the company's standard royalty rate for these handsets. MediaFlo technology will run on any spectrum that national regulators make available to mobile TV services, according to Gilbert. If regulators initially showed more support for DVB-H, "they are more neutral today" and willing to consider alternative technologies such as MediaFlo, he said. Gilbert ruled out the DMB (Digital Media Broadcasting) standard as a viable alternative, pointing to its limited bandwidth capability. Some analysts agree. "Of the mobile TV standards out there, DMB is the weakest primarily because of its limited bandwidth, which reduces the number of channels and picture quality," Patel said. Unlike MediaFlo and DVB-H, however, the DMB standard uses spectrum currently available in numerous European markets. As such, it is enjoying a head-start advantage in countries like Germany, which issued DMB licenses prior to the World Cup soccer tournament last year. The German regulator has yet to set a time-frame for DVB-H. Momentum for MediaFlo is growing: On Feb. 12, the biggest U.S. cellular company, AT&T's Cingular division, announcedÂ plans to launch a mobile TV serviceÂ using MediaFlo technology later this year. Verizon Wireless, the country's second-largest mobile operator by subscribers, has already committed to using MediaFlo, with plans to offer commercial service in March. Â
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The Finnish presidency of the European Union proposed the creation of a common standard for European technology in the field of mobile television.
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Europe is slightly ahead of other   continents in developing mobile television, but lack of joint   radio spectrum for the service means it may lose its   leadership, regulators and industry leaders said on Thursday.
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The EU agrees on new rules for TV and on-demand internet video, allowing more advertising.
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(InfoWorld) - At a global event once known for long-winded, diplomatic speeches delivered by heads of state-owned telephone companies, Viviane Reding, European Union Commissioner for Information Society and Media, was brief and blunt in her keynote speech Monday at the opening of the Telecom World conference and exhibition in Hong Kong. Speaking to a mixed audience of government officials and corporate executives, Reding said "competition drives growth -- not monopolies." Key to creating a competitive telecom market is, among other things, the development of alternative infrastructure, such as cable and wireless networks, which can compete with the public networks of entrenched incumbents, according to Reding. Regulators can play a big role in this process by supporting the development of competitive networks, she said. IP (Internet Protocol) technology is another tool regulators could use to foster competition. With platform-neutral IP, they could establish a "functional separation" between the "passive network," or underlying infrastructure consisting of cables and components, and the "active network" comprising the many different services that run on top, Reding said. A functional separation could make competition much more effective in a services-oriented environment, but such a separation would have to be done "in a careful way," she warned. Even though GSM (Global System for Mobile Communications) was everything but an open global standard when the European Union initially agreed to the need to establish a pan-European mobile phone system, policy makers in Brussels have since acknowledged the need for standards to be established by the market -- and not government. Reding pointed to the current standards battle in Europe over broadcast mobile TV technology. "Several standards are fighting for the pole position," she said. But governments shouldn't decide because they could select the "wrong standard" and "lock " industry into a technology that may be inferior or commercially unattractive. Governments need to minimize regulation in the digital era, including spectrum allocation, Reding said. Many of the entry barriers in the wireless sector that exist today are bureaucratic, not technical, and governments should get rid of them as soon as possible, she said. Wrapping up her speech, Reding had a word of advice for Chinese regulators: they should participate in global telecom standards rather then favoring their own. "We are living in an open world," the Commissioner said. "Government should not be setting standards, but should be providing the legal framework to create free and open competitive standard setting." Reding's remarks mirrored the concerns of European WCDMA (Wideband Code Division Multiple Access) equipment makers that worry about beingÂ locked out of ChinaÂ if the government favors the homegrown TD-SCDMA (Time Division Synchronous Code Division Multiple Access) standard and local suppliers that support it. At present, WCDMA, which dominates Europe and huge chunks of Asia, the U.S.-supported CDMA 2000 and China's self-developed TD-SCDMA are the three potential 3G (third-generation) mobile network technology standards for China. Â ADVERTISEMENTNEW IT SERVICES FROM IBM: EASIER TO BUY AND IMPLEMENTDiscover a simpler, more cost-effective way to get the solutions your company needs to grow more flexible and efficient.
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Mobile television is taking center stage at Europe's annual wireless industry show after years of largely unfulfilled hype, though differing technology standards still blur the picture.