Government gives the green light to DVB-H
September 26, 2007
From Sotires Eleftheriou in Paris
The French Government has signed the decree for the technical standard for mobile television, known as TMP (television mobile personnelle) using the DVB-H standard, with complementary coverage via satellite using DVB-SH.
The way is now open for a call for candidates to be issued by the end of October. The Minister of the Economy, Christine Lagarde, said that the Government wanted a commercial launch of mobile television in time for the Beijing Olympics and a general deployment by 2010. In reply to a question, she said that part of the spectrum freed after analogue switch-off would be used to provide wide coverage for TMP – “the public does not understand why TMP could not be available outside large towns” she said. The currently available spectrum, known as M7, would only reach 30 per cent of the population.
The hope is the French TMP may fare better than Virgin Mobile and BT Movio in the UK.