By: Ben Robinson, IntoMobile Sunday, July 12th, 2009 at 5:58 AM
Content to Mobile is reporting that the EU has dropped plans to introduce a tax on handsets that are capable of receiving video.
Apparently moves were afoot last year to add a 14% tax on devices that included a TV receiver. However, pressure from the big handset vendors seems to have quelled this move.
That’s got to be a good move, surely – Mobile TV really hasn’t been the wildfire success that it was hoped to be, and I think this tax could potentially have been the death knell – Mobile TV has now earned a short reprieve, in my opinion – lets see what it can do in the next 18 months….
Ben is a 10+ year veteran of the Mobile industry – starting his career
when SMS was a still a relatively new concept for most people (!), he has
now consulted on everything from bleeding-edge Mobile content, to the
next-gen accessories you might view it on. As a result he has a broad and deep knowledge in numerous areas of Mobile – from network operators to device vendors, to infrastructure and middleware vendors (not to mention content delivery) – and has worked for companies in all of these areas!
He is based in the UK, a hotbed of activity for mobile, and recently
became a father for the second time – as oppose to in his younger years
when he was happy spend time tweaking all manner of mobile devices to
'nth' degree, he now looks for services and hardware that provide the most efficient, compact, and reliable improvements to his already manic life! It’s his opinion that Mobile solutions should be there to help to make
your life better – if a particular solution (be it service or device)
isn’t doing this, he believes you need to ask the very important question
of why you continue to use it...
His focus at IntoMobile is mainly on Mobile content, services, and
infrastructure, particularly as regards the UK market – and with the
occasional look at devices. Additionally, using his extensive experience
in the industry, he will provide commentary on the industry at large, with
regular (and hopefully thought-provoking) articles.
Chris P
If they use DVB-H its pretty much a non starter as whole blocks of spectrum are needed, DMB can use smaller blocks and piggyback off the existing DAB infrastructure. But the EU backs DVB-H!