Nokia says EU does not need unified mobile TV band

There is no need for a single radio frequency for mobile television across the European Union and said the EU's plan for an interim solution was unrealistic, handset leader Nokia, quoted by a Reuters report, said.

 

The Reuters report said European regulators and industry leaders at an i2010 telecoms conference in Finland believe that Europe is slightly ahead of other continents in developing mobile TV, but lack of a joint radio spectrum for the service means it may lose its leadership.

 

The industry is hoping national regulators will allocate in total 32 megahertz for mobile television from the UHF range (470-750 megahertz) currently used for television broadcasts, but in some countries the airwaves are crowded, making it hard to find the channels, the Reuters report said.

 

A senior EU Commission official told Reuters last week the union plans to offer the so-called L-band (1.4 gigahertz) as an interim solution to be used before 2012 when analog broadcasts end in the EU making more frequencies available for new digital broadcasts.

 

Jouni Kamarainen, director of industry collaboration at Nokia's multimedia unit, said there was no need for the same frequency across the EU.

 

'We are talking about access to a wide frequency band. The devices scan the airwaves to find the signal. The user does not have to think about it,' Kamarainen told Reuters in an interview.

 

Mobile and broadcast industries are in a hurry to launch commercial services, but so far only a few countries have a dedicated spectrum for a mobile TV network, the Reuters report further said.