New candidate for “World’s First” with DVB-H?

28 March 2006

The Finnish Goverment announced late last week that it has awarded a license to build and operate a DVB-H mobile TV network to Digita. Three other companies, Elisa Corporation, TeliaSonera Finland Plc and Telemast Nordic Oy, also applied for the license. The successful applicant says that it will roll out the network this year with the aim of covering 29% of the Finnish population by the end of 2006.

This news comes against the backdrop of recent announcements in Italy from both 3 Italia, who say they will launch a network in time for the World Cup in June, and from Telecom Italia Mobile, who are targetting a September launch date. This year will also see the deployment of a DVB-H network in the USA from Crown Castle International subsidiary Modeo.

Further information on the announcement in Finland and on DVB-H technology, trials and launches can be found on the official DVB-H website.