EU selects Mobile Standard

The BBC reports that the EU has backed the DVB-H standard for mobile TV services across Europe. Telecoms commissioner Viviane Reding urged member states to start using the chosen standard "as quickly as possible".

Ms Reding warned at the beginning of the year that Europe risked losing a chance to be a global player in the burgeoning mobile TV market.

DVB-H (Digital Video Broadcasting for Handhelds) has been identified by the EU as "the strongest contender for future mobile TV".

It was developed with almost 40m euros ($53m, £27m) of EU research cash and has so far been trialled or rolled out in eighteen European countries.

The use of the DVB-H standard will be "legally encouraged" among all 27 member states with the view to mandating use, if necessary, next year, said Ms Reding.

The decision is seen as a way of speeding up the rollout of services, which the EU believes could reach some 500 million customers worldwide by 2011.

There are seven standards for mobile TV around the globe. DVB-H is available in Europe, US, South Africa and Asia, although Qualcomm in the USA uses the MediaFLO standard, and Virgin Mobile in the UK utilises DAB (Digital Audio Broadcasting), a technology associated with digital radio.

The use of DVB-H requires freeing up the UHF band, which might be problematic for some countries.