We get industry reaction to this development as well as interviewing the InfoSoc Commissioner, Viviane Reding. Also in this issue are reports on the allocation of the digital dividend in France and Sweden and an update on GSM refarming.
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Mobile operators have been keen to re-use the frequencies which under the 1987 GSM Directive were allocated exclusively to what was to become the dominant mobile phone standard. The announcement has been widely anticipated and France has already planned out the use of the bands for 3G services. These lower frequencies have better propagation characteristics than the higher bands currently used for 3G services. They require fewer base stations which means networks can be rolled out more cheaply. The industry anticipates as 40% reduction in costs.
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France appears to be making smooth progress towards analogue switchoff. In February this year, its parliament passed a law, entitled 'Télévision du Futur', stating that the process would begin in March 2008 and be completed by the end of November 2011. The law, originally drafted after a period of consultation organised by national broadcasting regulator the Conseil Supérieur de l'Audiovisuel (CSA), also says that most of the spectrum made available as a result of analogue switchoff – the 'digital dividend' – should be allocated to 'audiovisual services'. Some estimates have already concluded that the digital dividend could lead to the addition of another 20 TV channels.
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There are several DVB-H services already in operation in Europe, and three major multinational operators, Telefonica O2, Vodafone and T-Mobile, are launching a combined DVB-H service in the major German market next year. However few people in the telecoms industry agree with Reding's contention that "DVB-H has already emerged as the winner in Europe" and nobody PolicyTracker interviewed thought DVB-H either should or would emerge as the single European standard.
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Commissioner Reding gives the strongest possible support to the technology and urges member states to do the same, but stopped short of calling for DVB-H to be mandated. This is a softening of the position stated in March, when Commissioner Reding said DVB-H would be made compulsory by the summer unless industry voluntarily agreed its own single standard.
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InfoSoc Commissioner Viviane Reding's threat to make DVB-H the compulsory European mobile TV technology unless the industry agreed its own standard came in a remark to a journalist back in March and has caused the biggest storm to hit policy circles so far this year.
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Existing mobile operators are generally keen to delpoy 3G in the 900MHz and 1800MHz bands currently used for second generation services. As 2G is gradually phased out this makes for more efficient and cost effective use of spectrum and the better propagation characteristics of the lower bands mean fewer base stations and lower costs.
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'Most of the comments made at the hearing came from those who had responded to the government's consultation on the digital dividend, so there was much that had been heard before,' says Jonas Wessel, expert adviser in the office of the director general at Swedish regulator the National Post and Telecom Agency (PTS). 'However, the government did say that by the end of the year, it will have reached some kind of conclusion on how much terrestrial TV there will be in Sweden after analogue switch-off.'
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Ofcom, being Europe's leading spectrum liberaliser, has long held the view that the market is the best way of ensuring the efficient use of the airwaves. They are keen to apply this principle to broadcasting, a sentiment endorsed first by the milestone 2002 Cave report on spectrum liberalisation, and then by the government. Broadcasters, however, have been as dubious about the implications of liberalisation as Ofcom has been enthusiastic.
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We also examine Ofcom's decision to apply market principles to broadcast spectrum; the implications of the agreement on voluntary harmonisation of a UHF sub band for mobile services; and the implementation issues raised by the harmonisation of spectrum for mobile satellite services.
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