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Mobile TV can't wait til 2012, says Reding
'We must give it spectrum sooner not later'

By Reuters

Published: Thursday 09 March 2006

The European Commission urged rapid action to harmonise rules and regulations for mobile television on Wednesday, saying Europe cannot wait until 2012, when sufficient radio spectrum will become available.

EU information society and media commissioner Viviane Reding said in a speech at CeBIT, the world's biggest electronics trade fair, that decisions must be taken "in the coming 12 months".

She said: "I am more and more convinced that we cannot wait until 2012 to deploy new services such as mobile TV on a large scale. We cannot afford to sleep on this. Actions are already well underway outside Europe. That is why we should act now to allocate at least some common European spectrum bandwidths for Mobile TV."

Mobile TV, which is digital television broadcast over airwaves and received on portable devices such as mobile phones and pocket computers, can be of economic importance as it will boost technological, industrial and consumer-services growth.

Reding said: "We had better make sure that we create enough space for these services to take off. In particular, we have to make sure that harmonised spectrum is available across Europe, so that consumers can access services on their travels: this is the European freedom to move."

Bandwidth may need to be freed up earlier than planned to give these new mobile television services room to grow.

She said: "In the medium term, as mobile TV takes off, we may need further bandwidth for the new mobile, audiovisual services that come on-stream. This means we should start serious discussions now about the use of the digital dividend for spectrum, including further harmonisation at EU level of frequency bands for potential use by services such as mobile TV."

Without new rules it will be at least six years before sufficient radio spectrum will become available throughout the EU following the phasing out of analogue broadcasts.

Reding said the telecoms, technology and media industries need to formulate how they want to kick-start a harmonised mobile television industry in the EU.

She added: "If the industry calls upon the Commission to assist in achieving these goals we will do all that we can to assist."

At the moment, not all vendors and telecoms companies agree which of the six available technologies for mobile TV should be used, although most agree that scarcity of radio spectrum is holding back development of the service. In trials, consumers have said they want at least 16 channels to choose from.

Reding said by early next year she will propose specific further steps to "unlock the potential of mobile TV".