GSM LA: Govt Should Reserve Spectrum for Mobile TV

The Chilean government should set aside spectrum for mobile digital television to take advantage of mobile telephony coverage and penetration nationwide, Juan Carlos Jil, executive director of the GSM Association in Latin America told press.

The executive spoke during a seminar related to the benefits of digital television and the importance of selecting the most appropriate standard for the country.

"Some key considerations are the social and economic impact, service coverage, scale economies and the possibility of expanding terrestrial digital TV to mobile digital TV, as well as the devices and penetration time," Jil said.

The Chilean government has been discussing which digital TV service standard to implement with many operators in the country having already shown interest in launching these types of services in the mid term.

"The terrestrial digital TV standard should be selected with an eye to creating synergies with mobile telephony since mobile penetration in Chile already reaches almost 80% of the population," GSM LA chairman Oliver Flögel said during the seminar. Flögel is also CEO of Movistar Chile, the local mobile unit of Spain's Telefónica.

According to Jil, in the most developed countries in Europe, Asia and Oceania, where mobile penetration is close to 100%, the governments have based their terrestrial digital TV standard selection on the synergies that could be achieved with mobile telephony.

The most popular standards globally are DVB-T used in 49 countries particularly in Europe, Africa, Asia and Oceania; ATSC used in North America and ISDB-T used in Japan and due for set up in Brazil.

For mobile digital TV the most widely used standards are DVB-H, MBMS and DMB.

BNAmericas.com"

Posted to the site on 4th October 2006