Mar 16, 2007, 15:43 GMT
Hanover, Germany - In an implicit threat to the DMB mobile television standard that has made rapid strides in South Korea, the European Union's top telecoms official warned Friday that she had powers to impose the rival standard that she prefers, DVB-H.
'I could mandate a standard. I don't want to do that. I think that should be a last resort,' said Commissioner Viviane Reding at a news conference at the computing expo Cebit in Hanover, Germany.
The two competing formats mark a major divide in the infant industry of broadcasting television programmes to be watched on the small screens of mobile phones. The new formats conserve battery power so that viewers can watch for hours without recharging.
Reding said 400,000 Italian mobile-phone customers were now able to receive the TV signals in the European Union's biggest DVB-H launch. Most other countries are only testing the system, with several trying DMB, which is fitted to many Korean-made mobiles.
The EU had chosen to back DVB-H (digital video broadcasting, handheld) because it was an open standard and a European one, Reding said. She said consumers did not care what standard they used and it was up to EU industry to rally round DVB-H as the sole standard.
Reding said industrial leaders had told her they could not agree on a single standard.
A survey by the Commission showed 17 EU nations backed DVB-H and five said they would allow DMB (digital multimedia broadcasting). Some wireless phone companies want to transmit TV using phone channels instead of allowing general broadcasts to phone users.
'Someone has to take charge,' said the Brussels-based commissioner. 'If it has to be done, I'll do it.'
Your Talkback on this Story