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Tag Archive for 'EC'

BMCO Forum attacks EC plans to impose 14% duty on imported mobile TV handsets

January 28, 2009 by Barry Flynn

The BMCO Forum, the industry group representing mobile broadcasting players, has lashed out at what it claims are European Commission plans to impose a 14% tax on high-end mobile TV enabled mobile phones upon entry to the EU, saying that it “poses a risk for the development of Mobile TV into a mass-market service.”

In a statement released today, the Forum says: “Of the many factors involved in the success of broadcast mobile TV services, handset availability is arguably the most critical. A wide range of attractive, feature rich handsets at a variety of price points is crucial to the rapid uptake of mobile TV services by consumers. The Broadcast Mobile Convergence Forum believes that the introduction of a 14% customs duty upon entry to the EU on high-end mobile TV enabled phones as well as on components, produced outside the EU and used to manufacture mobile TV enabled phones in the EU will seriously threaten the development of mobile TV into a mass market service.”

The Forum points out that the EC had previously said it regarded mobile TV as being “at the forefront of high-value, innovative services, with indications of a potential market value between € 7 billion and € 20 billion by 2011.” The EC has also recently published a communication on the the legal framework for mobile TV networks and services by identifying best practice for authorisation.

Franklin Selgert, chairman of the BMCO Forum’s board, said his members were “surprised” by the EC’s “non-harmonised approach” regarding the development of mobile TV, “fostering it on the one hand and setting barriers to its adoption on the other.”

Selgert called on the EC and EU member states not to set any additional customs duties on mobile TV enabled components and devices.

Posted in Mobile TV. 0 Comments

French government one of few to have accepted ITU recommendation to allocate DTT spectrum to mobile broadband

January 2, 2009 by Barry Flynn

This piece from the International Herald Tribune puts the French debate over mobile broadband’s potential cannibalisation of DTT frequencies in context.

It seems the French government is one of the few European administrations (the others being the Finnish, Swedish and Swiss authorities) to have agreed to an ITU recommendation in 2007 that its members should set aside some of their UHF frequencies for mobile broadband - this despite subsequent plans to allocate these to DTT.

The IHT article quotes a Nokia Siemens executive who points out that a wireless broadband network transmitting over UHF frequencies rather than the current 2.1GHz band used in Europe would require 75% fewer base stations to cover the same area.

The article also notes that while the European Commission is in favour of a harmonised mobile broadband frequency, the spectrum experts’ group that advises it, the Radio Spectrum Policy Group, is split. Moreover, the EU’s council of ministers has rejected a plan by Viviane Reding, the EU’s telecoms commissioner, to give the EC a role in co-ordinating spectrum at a pan-European level. (Reding is on record as advocating a co-ordinated frequency band for European mobile TV services).

This one will run and run….

Posted in Digital Terrestrial and Mobile TV. 0 Comments