T-Systems to provide DVB-H broadcast services

T-Systems Media&Broadcast GmbH (TSMB), a subsidiary of the Deutsche Telekom Group, has obtained the frequencies necessary to operate a mobile TV broadcasting service based on DVB-H technology. The decision by the President's Chamber of Germany's Network Agency was announced in a statement by the regulatory authority in Bonn. "The assignment of DVB-H frequencies marks another important step for mobile TV in Germany," said Network Agency president Matthias Kurth on Monday in Bonn.

Kurth said that the tenders to operate the network had been reviewed by the regulator in accordance with established evaluation criteria. The Telekom subsidiary was the most suitably qualified to fulfil the legal and technical requirements of the call for tenders, he continued. The announcement means that the tender filed by the joint venture of the Burda and Holtzbrinck media groups and of MFD, which already offers DMB-based mobile TV, was unsuccessful.
The expansion of the broadcast network is scheduled to start in Hanover the spring of 2008. Kurth expects the first broadcasts to take place in time for CeBIT 2008, with coverage of the main cities in the other 15 German states in place by the end of the year. Starting in 2009, the network will be rolled out to provide coverage for all German towns with a population of over 150,000 as well as to each of the four largest cities in each state with a population of over 100,000.

Coverage should extend to 90 percent of the Germany population by 2015 assuming that DVB-H reaches a "commercially viable" penetration rate by 2013. However, this is by no means a foregone conclusion. Although DVB-H is the EU's officially preferred technology, it is up against the rival DMB standard used to transmit MFD's "Watcha" mobile TV service (marketed by Debitel and others), which was launched last year with only moderate success.
German mobile phone operators T-Mobile, Vodafone and O2 have formed a consortium to develop a common platform based on DVB-H technology. It remains to be seen which of the two standards will prevail, and indeed whether "handset TV" will be able to gain the popular support necessary to ensure its commercial survival.