Norway, The Netherlands, the UK, Malta and Italy ignore the EU, push for DMB vs. DVB-H

failtv

Norway, the UK, Italy, Manla and the Netherlands are joining forces in a race to see who can waste the most time and money when it comes to the standard for getting TV on your mobile phone by forming the International DMB Advancement Group (IDAG). In March 2008, Viviane Reding, EU Commissioner for the Information Society and Media said:

“For Mobile TV to take off in Europe, there must first be certainty about the technology. This is why I am glad that with today’s decision, taken by the Commission in close coordination with the Member States and the European Parliament, the EU endorse DVB-H as the preferred technology for terrestrial mobile broadcasting.”

Leave it to five countries to make operators hesitant about which technology to build out, make handset makers uneasy about supporting one technology over the other and making consumers wait even longer to watch Eurovision and 10 year old music videos on their movile phones. TV via DMB is working in Norway, will be turned on in the Netherlands and Malta this year, and is currently being tested in small scales in Italy and the UK.

About The Author

Stefan Constantinescu

Stefan Constantinescu (@WhatTheBit on Twitter) has loved technology since as far back as he can remember. It started with computers, but in the past few years his passion has turned to mobile devices. As a mobile phone enthusiast who lives and breathes devices that connect to the internet, he knows he is not alone with this radical fascination of all things wireless. He is strongly opinionated and enjoys a good debate so leave comments in his posts and he’ll get back to you! Stefan began blogging as a hobby in the fall of 2006 and joined IntoMobile in the summer of 2007. Later he got a job at Nokia in March 2008, but as of June 2009 he has rejoined the IntoMobile team. He is currently based out of Helsinki, Finland.

John F.

Wating time and money?

Redings EU commission has spent 30 Million Euro on propaganda for DVB-H which is a very closed technology that is tied up to SIM cards and which makes telecom operators control the TV channels on offer.

Why doesn’t she speak up for me, the consumer? I want mobile TV on my navigation unit in my car and on an mp3 player in the pub so that i can text my mates while watching TV. And of course on my mobile phone too, but it should be my choice, not Vodafones and Oranges.

Where has DVB-H been a success, by the way? Name one country. Just one!! DVB-H is dead, mate. Dead.

Superb initiative by the Dutch and the Vikings! Raid some more big fat cats that want to take my money and stop me wathcing telly!!
Andrew

We don’t give a damn about your EU here in Norway! We will chose the standard we like, the rest of you can stuff it (especially you the author).
Peter White

Norway is not in the EU. The UK has abaondoned attempts at T-DMB. It also has NO spectrum for DVB-H, and has sold some L Band spectrum to Qualcomm, which is unlikley to be used (it was meant for MediaFLO). Korea had about 16 million T-DMB devices, around 65% of them not handsets, at last count and a further 2 million or so S-DMB devices, which is a very different style of mobile TV using 2.6 GHz from a satellite. Japan had 47 million ISDB-T 1Seg devices, mostly handsets, earlier this year and is selling them at the rate of 2 million a month. I have all this stuff at my fingertips, if you want more, just ask, it’s what I do for a living.
Ben Robinson

Personally I think neither are going to fly at the moment… there just isn’t the business case there for them.
Chris P

Im not sure why thats a fail!? There will be no DVB-H spectrum available UKwide until 2012. DMB can latch on to existing DAB transmitters (with upgrades) using the bandwidth. Makes far more sense to me. Im not sure why DMB isnt adopted elsewhere really – Germany has an extensive DAB network.
Problem is Nokia supported DVB-H (European company) and Samsung supported DMB (Korean). Nokia wont support DMB so its not going to fly anyway..
Charles-Etienne Jamme

I am just coming back from a trip in South Korea, I saw there users watching TV in the subway and in many other locations on their mobile, PDA and MP3 players.

This service is available for free, for years and in DMB format.

Korea has been a pioneer in developing this technology and it has proven very successful, seen also their hilly landscape.

Additionally DMB will be more widespread than the DVB-H as India and China are DMB adopters as well.

DMB has many advantages – but maybe not for the commercial companies who decided to sell their products via the other standard in Europe.