abertis telecom deploys nine mobile TV networks at the Mobile World Congress 2008

abertis telecom, the abertis group’s infrastructure and telecommunications operator, will provide and manage the mobile TV broadcasting and transport network to receive television signals and interactive services on handsets during the Mobile World Congress 2008, to be held in Barcelona from 11 to 14 February.

As in the previous two years, the Mobile World Congress, the industry’s most important event and previously known as the 3GSM World Congress, will bring together the leading companies and international bodies involved in the development of telephone and mobile communications. Exhibitions and seminars on mobile TV services will be offered, while leading audiovisual and telecommunications companies will showcase their latest innovations and technological solutions in this market.

abertis telecom, as Official Mobile TV Provider at the World Congress for the third year running, is responsible for rolling out the network for all mobile television providers. This year abertis telecom has deployed nine networks to provide coverage in the DVB-H, DVB-SH, StiMi, T-DMB and MediaFLO standards. This year’s congress will also see the rollout of a network based on the Chinese StiMi standard for the first time. This has been made possible through the cooperation agreement signed in November with the National Scientific Institute of China to develop mobile television projects in conjunction with abertis telecom.

The infrastructure deployed by abertis telecom includes its television transport and broadcasting facilities at the Collserola Tower, the capacity of the Hispasat and Eutelsat satellite systems and a number of transmitters installed in the Fira showground, which will complete the coverage for broadcasts inside its halls. The rollout by abertis telecom guarantees mobile TV coverage throughout the showground.

abertis telecom will be broadcasting over these programming networks for more than 40 radio and television channels from leading national and international broadcasters, as well as the GSM Media Partners, CNBC and the congress’ own channel, the Mobile TV network, which will be broadcasting throughout the event.

abertis telecom actively promotes the development of mobile television, spearheading internationally renowned projects such as WingTV and FURIA. It has also carried out six pilot programmes throughout Spain with the country’s leading radio broadcasters and mobile operators.

Spanish mobile operators want DVB-H conditions

Spanish mobile TV operators Telefónica's Movistar, France Telecom's Orange, Vodafone and Yoigo want to establish some conditions on the development of the DVB-H standard in the territory.

DVB-H has been chosen by the Spanish government for the country’s mobile TV service. The mobile operators essentially want to build their own network and issue themselves the frequencies for their services. So the implementation of DVB-H (the technological standard chosen by the European Union) will depend basically on the competition for the construction and usage of the network, due in 2008.

But it is likely licenses will be limited since Spanish Minister of Industry Joan Clos has already announced the radioelectric spectrum "is very full" of signals (see separate story). If the Spanish government doesn't come to an agreement with the mobile operators, the developement of the DVB-H network is at risk since the operators may then choose their own UMTS networks for the distribution of content.

Source : http://www.rapidtvnews.com/

Spanish DVB-H timed for Q2 08

Spain’s DVB-H network will be ready in the second quarter of 2008, the general manager of DTT network provider Abertis Telecom assured delegates to IBC over the weekend.

Tobías Martínez said the deployment of the DVB-H network was a "great" opportunity for Spain's broadcasters and mobile operators in order for them to give a "convergent" service where the same content is offered at the same time to users.

Martínez identified three pilars of Spain's future DTT: mobile DTT, HDTV and DTT on the internet. As for interactive services, Martínez mentioned the initiatives called TDT 2.0 and TDT 3.0. The first will allow the citizen easy and secure access to the Information Society's services while TDT 3.0 will centre its efforts on the development of the HDTV concept in order to profit by the new technologies of the future TV sets.

Although the Spanish DTT market is not successful with DTT PVRs or MHP receivers or even with HDTV such as France for example, the speed at which the DTT receivers penetration go is the highest in Europe. Martínez said Spain had a market of 3.4 million DTT receivers eight months ago in comparison to France which had 4.8 million terminals. "This difference is very small taking account France's objective is to reach 6 million homes more", he declared. France launched DTT later than Spain but the platform is more interesting in terms of content and services.