EU pushes for swift action on mobile TV

The European Commission urges quick action on harmonized rules and regulations for mobile television, saying Europe could not wait until 2012 when sufficient radio spectrum becomes available, an AFP report said.

Quoting EU Information Society Commissioner Viviane Reding's speech at the CeBIT electronics trade fair, the report said decisions should be taken 'in the coming twelve months.'

'I am more and more convinced that we cannot wait until 2012 to deploy new services such as mobile TV on a large scale. We cannot afford to sleep on this. Actions are already well underway outside Europe. That is why we should act now to allocate at least some common European spectrum bandwidths for mobile TV,' the report quoted her as saying.

The report said mobile TV could be of economic importance as it would boost technological, industrial, and consumer-services growth.

Reding said this was why efforts to 'create space' for such services should be pushed as early as now, the report said. These efforts included ensuring that harmonized spectrum was available across Europe and freeing up bandwidth earlier than planned.

She enjoined the telecom, technology and media industries to come up with a way to harmonize the mobile television industry in the EU, noting that not all industry players were currently in agreement over which of the six available technologies for mobile TV should be used.