LONDON — The European Commission has backed the DVB-H flavor of mobile TV as a standard and has called for member states and the industry to push ahead as fast as possible implementing the technology.

The strong endorsement has upset the backers of alternative specifications for delivering TV to mobiles, such as those based on DMB, digital audio broadcasting (DAB) technology or the MediaFLO specification promoted by Qualcomm.

But it was not unexpected following statements over the past year by EU Telecoms Commissioner Viviane Reding.

Reding has been insisting that Digital Video Broadcasting--Handheld (DVB-H) is the strongest contender and most popular standard for mobile TV deployment in Europe.

Reding said the Commission would "continue to monitor the situation in the EU and may come forward with proposals in 2008 including, if appropriate, making this open standard mandatory."

She reiterated said Wednesday (July 18) she wants a pan-European market and sees a strong risk of fragmentation through potentially 27 different sets of national rules, the uncoordinated use of spectrum and a lack of interoperability. She claims mobile TV could foster growth and jobs.

"Mobile broadcasting is a tremendous opportunity for Europe to maintain and expand its leadership in mobile technology and audiovisual services," she said. "Europe today is at a crossroads. We can either take the lead globally - as we did for mobile telephony based on the GSM standard developed by the European industry - or allow other regions to take the lion's share of the promising mobile TV market.

"Wait-and-see is not an option. The time has come for Europe's industry and governments to switch on to mobile TV."

The commission also urged governments to make radio spectrum - released by the switch from analogue to digital TV broadcasting - available for mobile TV as quickly as possible, including in the UHF band - and the L-band as a backup. It called for "light touch" regulation of the nascent market.

The industry is pushing for UHF band as it would be two to three times more expensive to build network in higher L-band, but in some countries such as the U.K. the UHF spectrum is crowded until analogue broadcasts are switched off in 2012.

DVB-H has been developed with almost Euros 40 million ($53 million) of EC research cash and has so far been trialed or rolled out in eighteen European countries. The decision is seen as a way of speeding up the rollout of services, which the EC believes could reach some 500 million customers worldwide by 2011.

The European Broadcasting Union (EBU) said it appreciated that the Commission did not yet mandate a single standard for mobile TV, and encouraged it to follow a principle of technological neutrality also in the future.

But it added that the pace of technological development precluded the adoption of any one standard at this stage. It said it should be up to business to define attractive models that would entice consumers to opt for the standard they like best.

Technology alone will not decide the future of mobile TV, the organization added.

And Kamil Grajski, the president of the FLO Forum, the organization set up to promote MediaFLO technology, suggested the EC's intention of favoring any one particular technology for Europe could stall the advancement of a healthy European mobile TV business.

Grajski said: "We support the principle of technology neutrality, which the major European industry groups have been calling on the Commission to respect. There is a reason why the principle of technology neutrality exists and that is to ensure that the market can choose which technology delivers the most attractive solution for the consumer. Each country has its own unique market conditions and each mobile broadcasting technology standard has very different performance characteristics. Locking the European market into one technology model is potentially harmful to the growth of mobile broadcasting in Europe and will hinder the development of innovative technologies."

"Despite its youth, the mobile TV marketplace already offers multi-standard and multi-technology products and services - from chipsets to broadcast network transmission equipment.

"These developments should allow for the take up of attractive broadcasting services that will enable economies of scale. Technology is not the problem, but restriction of choice will be."

Grajski added that the recent trials of FLO technology in the U.K. in conjunction with BSkyB and involving several EU-based FLO Forum members highlighted significant technical advantages that offer savings on infrastructure spending.

"FLO offers twice the capacity of DVB-H, or alternatively the same capacity, but with a network build out with significantly reduced cost," said Grajski.