A Brief History of DVB-H
January 8, 2007, 11:51 PM
Scott Fulton, BetaNews: Sharon Fisher, it's amazing to me how very little is known about these digital broadcast television standards that seek to take over the industry in as soon as a few years' time. Just today, I made some inquiries into Samsung's Advanced Vestigial Sideband (A-VSB), and even some people supposedly "in the know" didn't know what I was talking about. But DVB-H has been around longer; it's not a trial technology, it's actually in place in some parts of Europe. Could you fill us in a little bit?
Sharon Fisher, BetaNews Senior CES Analyst: Sure. DVB-H is a protocol for bringing broadcast television to battery-powered handheld receivers such as cell phones. Portable broadcast technology in general had had problems due to battery use; DVB-H works by using time-division multiplexing so that the tuner is only powered when data is actually being transmitted. It was formally adopted in November 2004 by the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI), which is officially responsible for standardization of information and communication technologies within Europe.
Scott Fulton: Sounds like a mouthful so far.
Sharon Fisher: DVB-H technology has been or is being launched in a number of European and other countries, including Finland, France, Germany, Italy, the Russian Federation, South Africa, Spain, and Vietnam. In addition, it has been or is being tested in a wide variety of other countries. The DVB Project maintains a complete, up-to-date list here.
In the United States, Crown Castle International had a subsidiary, first called Crown Castle Mobile, which changed its name last January to Modeo. They tested their service in Pittsburgh in 2004 and 2005 and had expected to launch service in New York City by the end of 2006. That didn't happen because they have not yet made an agreement with a carrier. They are now launching a limited service during the first quarter to several hundred users in New York City, and it's thought that they're doing so in hopes of snagging a carrier partner. They have also said they expect to launch in the 30 largest U.S. markets in 2007. They're also reportedly testing at CES. The Crown Castle parent has reportedly invested $500 million in the organization.
Another organization, HiWire, is a division of Aloha Partners, and was announced last June, expecting to launch service in the first quarter. HiWire owns 12 MHz of spectrum, whereas Modeo owns only 5 MHz of spectrum.
Scott Fulton: Quite extraordinary. Thirty markets in just this year, with so little advance publicity. Thanks, Sharon.
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