Sanday Chongo Kabange AfricaNews reporter in Lusaka, Zambia
Five African firms are among nine international companies that are pushing and advocating for the development of mobile television-ready handset globally. Africa, the world's least developed in terms of new media is hoping the new initiative would increase access and new media penetration.
The five African firms are DStv Mobile from Nigeria, Ghana, Namibia, Kenya and Safaricom Kenya.
The five have joined a global crusade that aims t develop mobile phones handsets that are television-ready.
The initiative was launched at the Broadcast Mobile Convergence Forum held in Berlin, Germany.
The 14 companies jointly signed a letter requesting the update of mobile phone roadmaps and an offer to discuss the development of common handset requirements based on the forum published profiles.
The objective is to have a variety of DVB-H (Digital Video Broadcasting - Handheld) enabled devices available as soon as possible, by second quarter of 2010.
Other firms interested in developing television-ready mobile handsets include, Smart Communications Inc, ePLDT Inc, Orange, Media Broadcast Austria, Italy, Germany, Antenna Hungaria, Dominanta and KENTAVR from Russia, Digita from Finland, INFO-TV-FM from Poland, and KPN from the Netherlands.
Within the Broadcast Mobile Convergence Forum the companies also agreed on actions which will support the vendors in the introduction of new devices in their markets.
"Promotion of broadcast mobile TV should be experiential to highlight its high quality video and audio. This is where device manufacturers play a crucial role in providing the market with low cost units to encourage first time users to experience broadcast mobile TV and become the catalyst for vital growth," said Orlando Vea, SMART Chief Wireless Advisor, and MediaQuest CEO in a news statement.
