[opendtv] Mobile-TV battlemoves to L-Band
- From: "Manfredi, Albert E" <albert.e.manfredi@xxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Fri, 17 Mar 2006 15:20:14 -0500
Seems like a universal assumption that TV-to-mobile-handheld devices
will be over channels dedicated only to that service. Whether the scheme
is T-DMB, which is not used for basic DTT broadcasting, or whether
DVB-H, which in principle could be sent over the same bands as DVB-T.
Seems to me that as long as these TV-to-handheld services are viewed as
closed subscription services, they should be allowed to coexist on the
UHF or L bands, much like competing cell phone services are allowed to
coexist in the cell phone bands. What Germany seems to have been able to
achieve.
Bert
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Mobile-TV battlemoves to L-Band
Under gun to launch, DVB-H camp covets digital audio's spectrum
Junko Yoshida
(03/13/2006 9:00 AM EST)
URL: http://www.eetimes.com/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=3D181502819
Paris -- The 1.5-GHz L-Band is fast becoming disputed territory as
mobile TV's backers escalate hostilities in the battle for spectrum.
Some promoters of the Digital Video Broadcast-Handheld format have
advocated "poaching" L-Band, originally assigned to the Digital Audio
Broadcast (DAB) radio standard, for DVB-H service in Europe. Britain's
powerful Office of Communications (Ofcom) regulatory agency is
addressing L-Band allocation in meetings this month. Although some
dismiss the U.K. discussions as a local matter, the fallout could land
on spectrum users elsewhere as promoters of the Digital Media Broadcast
(DMB) and DVB-H standards angle to grab spectrum for their incompatible
mobile-TV services.
In an ideal world, the 470- to 582-MHz UHF Band IV is the best spectrum
fit for DVB-H, whose developers had that band in mind when they drafted
the spec. But with the T-DMB format having already established a sizable
market in South Korea and a nascent one in China, DVB-H's backers are
under the gun. That has some looking covetously toward L-Band.
Calling the 1.5-GHz band "underutilized spectrum" and the UHF situation
"too woolly," David Crawford, a professor at the U.K.'s University of
Essex and director of business development at French vendor TeamCast,
argued that "L-Band is the most suitable place to start DVB-H." Crawford
said he came to that conclusion while chairing the DVB Projects Study
Mission on Spectrum Issues for DVB-H.
UHF spectrum below 750 MHz is ideal for the handheld DVB format but "is
not available universally," Crawford said.
The digital-TV switchover will require not only the cessation of analog
broadcasts but also the reshuffling of digital frequency to free up
sufficient spectrum for future auctions. How that block of
spectrum--often called the digital dividend--will be allocated, and to
whom, is hardly clear. In any given region, HDTV, SDTV, mobile TV and
other emerging services will all scrap for the same spectrum, Crawford
noted.
For now, the DVB Project is officially steering clear of the L-Band
lobbying activity. But "when forward-thinking regulators like Ofcom
advocate 'technology neutrality,' we have to take care that inconsistent
or ambiguous rule-makings over the use of spectrum do not create market
uncertainties," Crawford said elliptically.
As DVB-H proponents sweat out such negotiations, promoters of the
competing DMB format appear less fazed by spectrum issues.
South Korea began commercial Terrestrial DMB (T-DMB) services on Band
III in December. Several industrial consortia in China are also
embracing T-DMB, with Beijing and Guangzhou both deploying Band III and
Shanghai opting for L-Band.
'Creeping standardization'
John Hall, CEO of infrastructure and receiver developer RadioScape Ltd.
(London), said his company now has systems in place at nine
installations, including those of Beijing Jolon Digital Media
Broadcasting, Shanghai Oriental Pearl Group and Guangdong Yue Guang
Digital Multimedia Broadcasting. Rather than pick a single standard at
the outset, Hall said the Chinese are taking "more of a
creeping-standardization approach."
"As a chip company, the only real mass market we see today in mobile TV
is T-DMB," said Frontier Silicon Ltd. CEO Anthony Sethill. U.K.-based
Frontier is currently the sole T-DMB chip supplier to Samsung
Electronics, which expects to provide 3 million T-DMB-enabled handsets
in South Korea and 500,000 in China this year.
Comparing T-DMB's rising numbers with the snail's pace of DVB-H service
rollouts in Europe, Sethill summed up the DVB-H dilemma with a question:
"Where's the spectrum?"
In the end, each European country will have to make its spectrum
decisions based on how it interprets the original European agreement
allocating both Band III and L-Band for DAB. Some assert that the use of
L-band for T-DMB, a variant of DAB, is a done deal. Germany, for one, is
moving rapidly toward getting T-DMB on L-Band, with a plan to launch a
commercial mobile-TV service in conjunction with the 2006 World Cup.
But L-Band's proponents within the DVB-H group argue that since DMB is
not a digital "audio" broadcast service, the band should be available to
DVB-H as well as T-DMB.
In Germany, at least, DVB-H and T-DMB have achieved a level of peaceful
coexistence. DVB-H proponents have found UHF spectrum available in five
of Germany's independent states, and UHF bands are expected to be
available in the rest of the country by 2009. "In Germany, we did look
for spectrum, and we found spectrum," said Urlich Reimers, chairman of
the DVB Technical Module. "When people tell you there is no spectrum,
don't believe them."
But Simon Mason, head of new-product development at digital
infrastructure and technology provider Arqiva, described a more dire
situation in the U.K. Using L-Band for DVB-H means more difficulty and
cost in building the necessary wide-area networks, Mason said. None of
the mobile handsets available today were designed for L-Band.
But "if you don't take part in the L-Band auction," Mason said, "the
risk is you miss the mobile-TV opportunity."
All material on this site Copyright 2006 CMP Media LLC. All rights
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