WorldDMB President, Quentin Walker, has slammed EU Commissioner, Viviane Reding, after it was revealed that Ms Reding has rejected telecoms and broadcast recommendations over mobile TV broadcasting standards.
The EMBC, which includes every major mobile telecoms operator, broadcaster, network provider and technology manufacturer from the Member States, has spent the past year studying the mobile technology market in Europe. Its report, presented at the European Commission conference on Mobile TV during Ce-Bit, concluded “there is no urgent need for specific new E.U. regulation to foster the introduction and development of mobile broadcasting.” Rather the market should be allowed to decide for itself which technologies are best suited for broadcasting television, radio and data to mobile devices in Europe. The Council recommended technology neutrality and said the Commission “should not favour any one technology over another.”
Europe’s telecoms companies and broadcasters were therefore stunned today when Ms. Reding flew in the face of the Council’s report and defied her own policy of technology neutrality, saying: “The industry should agree on one single standard. I believe this should be the DVB-H family of standards.” She went on to suggest that if the industry and member states failed to agree on one standard she would be forced to “intervene with regulatory measures.”
Responding to Ms Reding’s stance on the issue, WorldDMB President, Quentin Howard said: “It is ridiculous for the Commission to think that only one system can work everywhere! Each country has its own unique requirements and market conditions and the Commissioner’s preference for one solution suggests she has failed to grasp that mobile operators and broadcasters need flexibility to develop different business models.
“It is vital for European industry that the market is not restricted to one specific technology but rather we are able to use different systems tailored to each market. Technology is a rapidly and continually evolving process and it would be damaging to Europe’s economy and its citizens for the Commission to mandate one standard.
“Madame Reding says she prefers a European technology for Europe and cites interoperability as an important issue. I couldn’t agree more. DAB/DMB is a European technology whose development was funded by the EU. This European system has been adopted by leading technology nations including Korea and China. DMB is the world’s most successful mobile TV platform by an order of magnitude compared to DVB-H.
“On interoperability, I am pleased to remind her that WorldDMB and the DVB Forum are already working together to ensure that DAB/DMB and DVB-H2 (the next version of DVB-H) can be interoperable.
“The availability of spectrum is key to the roll-out of mobile TV and radio, and having a combination of DMB and DVB-H, for example, means you can start mobile broadcasting now in most European countries without the need for the Commission to do anything at all. For the Commissioner to sweep away all these issues, contradict her own policy of neutrality and to ignore the recommendations of the EMBC is unbelievable.”