Africa: Country Leads in Mobile Television in Africa

THE Federal government has said that come 2012, all analog transmission across the country will be switched off in line with the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).
Speaking yesterday at the launch of DStv Mobile television at the Transcorp Hilton Hotel, Abuja by Details Nigeria, the Acting Director-General, National Broadcasting Commission (NBC), Mr. Yomi Bolarinwa said the government would ensure that by 2015 which is the set target by the MDGs, no home in Nigeria will be left behind in receiving signals.
Nigeria also yesterday took the lead in the sub-Saharan Africa as it formally launched the Mobile television network using the Digital Video Broadcast-Handheld (DVB-H) technology standard.
Speaking at the launch, the Chairman, Details Nigeria Limited, one of the pioneers of Multimedia Digital Services broadcast in Nigeria, Adewunmi Ogunsanya who noted that the company had spent over $60 million in the take off of the project, said the DVB-H is regarded as world's leading mobile broadcast technology standard that allows for the digital terrestrial broadcast of live television channels to a mobile phone.
According to him, it provides 12 interesting Channels such as CNN, Channel 37 {Big Brother Africa}, NTA, Africa Magic, Channel O; SuperSportupdate; Trinity broadcast service, and a host of others, adding that plans have been concluded to extend services to Ibadan, Lagos, Calabar, Kano; Jos; Port Harcourt, Enugu, among others at the completion of full coverage of Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory.
Mr. Ogunsanya, who noted that the company took up the challenge in the believe in the spirit and sincerity of government to level the playing field and allow private operators the latitude to contribute meaningfully to the growth and development of the country, said Mobile TV is a very natural progression from TV in the lounge.
He said the company, in its desire for effective service delivery, had entered into its first distribution agreement with MTN Nigeria to market the service, with plans to move to Glo network, Celtel and others, adding that the DVB-H configure cellular telephones will be made available to consumers through MTN Nigeria.
"We are very excited that Nigeria becomes one of the first countries in the world to roll out DVB-H services. Details Nigeria will roll out the DVB-H service to all mobile operators in Nigeria. We have started discussions with the main players in this arena and are working hard to put all the building blocks in place to ensure that Nigerians have early access to global innovations in the industry.
"DVB-H allows for the digital terrestrial broadcast of live television channels to mobile telephones. It differs from third generation {"3G"} Mobile Telephony in that DVB-H is a one-to-many transmission on a linear basis and uses broadcasting infrastructure, while 3G uses telephony infrastructure that delivers point-to-point services.