28 May 2006
Next month's FIFA World Cup competition
in Germany will see the start of a widescale evalution of the
DVB-H system in preparation for the launch of commercial services
in 2007. The German mobile network operators (E-Plus, O2, T-Mobile
and Vodafone D2) will cooperate in putting services on air in
four cities: Berlin, Hamburg, Hannover and Munich. T-Systems will
operate the DVB-H platform along with the transmitter network.
14 TV programmes and 6 radio programmes will be included in the
service. The terminals will be provided by BenQ, Motorola, Nokia,
Sagem and Samsung.
One of the key aspects of this set of trial broadcasts is that
the system will be compliant with DVB´s IP Datacast set
of specifications. These specifications allow for the provision
of such essential features as an electronic service guide (ESG),
service purchase and protection (SPP) and a range of other crucial
elements for a mobile TV service. As with all DVB specifications,
the IP Datacast specifications are open standards and promote
maximum interoperability. The DVB-H network will use QPSK with
an FEC rate of 2/3.
The regional media authorities in Berlin and Brandenburg (mabb),
Hamburg (HAM), Niedersachsen (NLM) and Bayern (BLM) have created
the necessary conditions for the trial - in close cooperation
with the mobile network operators and the content providers. They
are committed to working towards a rapid market introduction.
Detailed information on DVB-H technology, trials and service launches can be found at www.dvb-h.org.