At the CeBIT, which will be officially opened by German Chancellor Angela Merkel today, visitors can catch a glimpse of the technological future. A great deal of what is presented at the Show will be an indispensable part of our lives in just a few years. This might well include mobile TV, by which TV programming can be broadcast to cell phones. Mobile TV could generate a new market estimated to be worth sales in the amount of the high millions.
"European companies should make use of this opportunity. After all, mobile TV is a potential engine of growth for the European telecommunications industry," as described by Federal Minister of Economics and Technology Michael Glos in an appeal to the private sector. With the current Council President Glos chairing the March 15 Informal Meeting of EU Telecommunication Ministers at the Fair in Hanover, this topic will be the main focus of discussion. The European Commission is planning to issue a corresponding Communication next month.
Mobile television will be transmitted just as conventionally broadcast programs and can thus reach many people. It has been made possible thanks to new technologies: Digital Video Broadcasting for Handhelds (DVB-H) and Terrestrial Digital Multimedia Broadcasting (T-DMB). The basic differences between the two systems are the differing bands and channelling.
Both technologies for mobile television services offer real market opportunities. Some of the players in the media and telecommunications sectors (including some with strong financing) have a pronounced interest in these new advances. The broadcasting of TV programs by DVB-H is being prepared by a consortium comprising the three mobile telephony network operators (T-Mobile, o2, Vodafone). The start-up operation "Mobiles Fernsehen Deutschland GmbH (MFD)" is relying on T-DMB technology. The market itself will decide whether and which technology will prove successful.
