Eight years after it issued recommendations on Mobile TV (pdf), the TRAI has issued a fresh consultation paper on "Digital Terrestrial Transmission", which seeks define norms around the transmission of broadcast channels through digital means, direct to consumers. This is the same type of technology being discussed, so it's the same consultation with a different name. However, eight years have passed and we still don't have anyone providing channels over DTT (apart from Doordarshan), so perhaps it's time to make those guidelines more broadcaster-friendly. Mobile TV being discussed here is not about the content delivered to your handset via a telecom operator or on the Internet. It is a direct terrestrial broadcast to your phone (or any other viewing device), being provided by a broadcaster, and does not lead to data consumption. Such means distribution of TV - Mobile TV instead of TV over Mobile - is (or was) in operation in South Korea. Multiple formats exist for Mobile TV, such as DVB-H (which was trialed by Doordarshan in 2007), S-DMB, T-DMB. From what I remember, there was even a demo of MediaFLO set up by Qualcomm at Delhi College of Engineering in 2008. The fact is that the manner in which the Mobile TV guidelines were issued in 2008, it was impractical for anyone to roll it out, especially given that the norms for leasing of airwaves had still not been finalized, and it took a while for Doordarshan to shift from analog to digital transmission, which led to spectrum being freed up.…
