China is reported to be going its own way on mobile TV with the announcement of a home-grown, recommended standard for the technology.
The standard, called GY/T220.1-2006, is expected to be formally implemented by China’s State Administration of Radio, Film and Television (SARFT) on 1 November 2006.
The standard is based on STiMi (satellite terrestrial interactive multiservice infrastructure) technology, developed by SARFT’s Academy of Broadcasting Science, which uses satellite transmission with additional ground transponders to boost coverage.
There are already several mobile TV standards vying for market position, including T-DMB, DVB-H and MediaFLO.
This is not the first time China has gone its own way on technology standards. It also put forward its own standard, TD-SCDMA, for 3G mobile telephony, competing with W-CDMA and CDMA2000.