expected to launch TV mobile standard soon

China’s broadcast industry regulator has announced that it will require mobile phone service providers in China to use a China-developed technology standard for broadcasting television signals to mobile phones. SARFT announced the new standard StiMi (Satellite Terrestrial Interactive Multi-service Infrastructure) ahead of an International forum on digital mobile standards taking place Oct/Nov 2006. The standard developed by SARFT is expected to be applied across the whole country later this month according to a researcher.
Previous reports had said that system testing and proving would continue until the end of the year however this announcement would seem to indicate that these tests are already successful or complete.
Trials and services using other mobile standards have been reported as taking place across China in recent months and when asked about how these are affected by this announcement a SARFT official said that   “ there are no conflicts of interest between Chinese mobile services” and went on to say “The real fight is between the domestic industry and foreign standard makers”
Commenting on these announcements a Chinese mobile service provider is quoted as saying that it would be difficult to promote the new standard “It will take a while before cell phone TV services with the new standard   can penetrate the market” and “Few people are prepared to invest in the new-born standard”
Source: TMCnet
Item added: 31st October 2006