In Novmber, the EC pushed a step closer to mandating DVB-H, says Paul Lambert. On November 20, European Union member states endorsed the European Commission's goal of ensuring that the European-developed DVB-H mobile TV technology is adopted by all operators in the region.

And although the EC has yet to mandate sole use of the technology, it is using all of its power to do so. At the same time, the EC's stance on DVB-H has given an indication of what kind of policies its proposed telecoms "super-regulator," the European Telecom Market Authority, would make.

The stakes riding on mobile TV, and DVB-H in particular, are high for the European mobile industry. The EC estimates that in 2011, mobile TV will reach 500 million people worldwide and be worth Eur20 billion ($29 billion). It says 2008 is a crucial year for mobile TV take-up in the EU, because of important sporting events, such as soccer's European Championships and the Summer Olympic Games, which will provide a unique opportunity for operators to raise customers' awareness of new services and to encourage their adoption.

With the EU having endorsed DVB-H, the EC says it is aiming to add DVB-H to the official list of standards whose use "all 27 EU member states have to support and encourage." It says it hopes that doing so will pave the way for Europe to follow in the footsteps of South Korea and Japan, which have 20 million mobile TV users between them, more than 30 times the number in the EU.

Although the EC's wording is strong, EU member states are not legally required to use DVB-H. Some countries, such as the UK and Germany, have already said that they would fight any attempt to mandate its use. Countries opposed to mandating DVB-H say such a move goes against the EU's preferred free-market approach, under which operators may deploy whatever technology they choose.

But Viviane Reding, the EC's telecoms commissioner, has said that a policy of wait-and-see "is not an option" for mobile TV standards and that the EC is prepared to mandate the use of DVB-H as the single European standard if national regulators fail to encourage use of the technology.

The EC will "in the weeks to come prepare the inclusion of DVB-H in the EU's official list of standards and will thereby legally encourage its use in all 27 member states," an EC statement said. "It will look closely at market developments over the next months and come with proposals in 2008, including, if necessary and appropriate, mandating the use of DVB-H."

That stance is in opposition to the EU's policy of technology neutrality, which is at the heart of the telecoms framework that the EC announced in early 2004. Technologies that could benefit from an aggressive technology-neutral stance toward mobile TV include South Korea-developed DMB (digital multimedia broadcast) and Qualcomm's MediaFLO, which has seen some interest from European operators, including Hutchison Whampoa's 3 unit.

But under EU law, "a departure from this principle is possible in specific cases where justified by market development, the need for economies of scale, interoperability and freedom of choice for users," the EC says.

It says that mandating a single technology for mobile TV will ensure that services are interoperable among countries and that vendors - especially European ones - will benefit from economies of scale.

"I call also on the minority of governments who are still reluctant, partly for internal reasons, to endorse DVB-H as European standard to join the majority quickly," Reding said. "The more member states participate actively, the better Europe will be in achieving the required critical mass to become a world leader in mobile TV."

She has put in place what she calls a three-pillar strategy, first presented in July, of which mandating technology is a crucial part. The first pillar is taking a joint approach to the licensing of mobile TV, to accelerate the rollout of services and to encourage innovative business models; the second is making spectrum available for the services, possibly in the UHF frequency band; and the third is promoting the use of DVB-H as the mobile TV standard for Europe.

France, Finland and Germany have all seen their DVB-H plans disrupted, with launches delayed until 2008. The UK, meanwhile, is having major difficulties identifying spectrum for DVB-H services.

Vodafone Germany, T-Mobile Germany and O2 Germany plan to launch DVB-H in the beginning of 2008. They have set up a consortium to operate the nationwide network. On Oct. 15, Germany's telecoms regulator, the BNA, awarded the technical contract for the country's DVB-H network to Deutsche Telekom's T-Systems. The firm has agreed to finance the deployment and running of the DVB-H network and will own the frequencies.

But DVB-H is not alone in Germany. On October 16, the Association of State Media Authorities awarded the mobile-TV-platform license to Mobile 3.0, a consortium of DMB operator MFD and Neva Media.

In France, operators and broadcasters are squabbling over the best way to offer the service, causing delays. Broadcasters are eager to see an advertising-funded free-to-air service, but operators want people to pay for it.

France had expected to launch broadcast-mobile-TV services in 3Q07, but the deadlock has seen the rollout delayed until at least 2Q08. France is said to be the leading unicast-mobile-TV market in Europe, with more than half a million subscriptions at end-2006.

On November 14, Reding proposed the creation of a single telecoms regulator, ETMA, to the European Parliament and Council of Ministers. The proposal is part of the EC's Telecoms Reform Package, which will come into effect in some form in 2010, as long as it is ratified by the executive branches of the European Union. Reding says the ETMA would support the EC and national telecoms regulators in ensuring that market rules and consumer regulations are applied consistently, independently and without protectionism in all 27 EU member states.

The EC's strong stance on DVB-H provides good insight into how telecoms regulation could look in the region in the future. If member states don't succeed in diluting the proposals for the ETMA, the body is set to ride roughshod over the wishes of individual governments.

Three of Europe's biggest countries - Germany, France and the UK - are already openly critical of the proposal, and Spain reportedly opposes it too. The EC's plans for DVB-H will further polarize those in favor of a single telecoms regulator and those against.

Paul Lambert is editor of Global Mobile

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