Oman - Public Consultation on Digital Video Broadcasting-Handheld (DVB-H)

Saturday, August 23rd, 2008
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In accordance to Article 8 set out in the Telecommunications Regulatory Act issued by the Royal Decree No. 30/2002, and its Executive Regulations and the Telecom Sector Policy, the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA) is in the process of developing regulation for the introduction of DVB-H Technology in the country. The backing of a single technical standard such as DVB-H seems to be at odds with the principle of technology neutrality. However in the countries that deploy DVB-T, there are natural arguments for using DVB-H as the mobile TV standard. The most important arguments are that

  • DVB-H is backwards compatible with DVB-T, and therefore synergy can be gained in the development process;
  • DVB-H uses the same frequency spectrum as DVB-T, and therefore in the post-analogue era the released resources (the digital dividend) can easily be allocated to DVB-H.

TRA seeks, through this Public Consultation paper, written comments from interested parties on the following questions:

  1. Do you have any plan to introduce DVB-H Technology? If yes – when are you planning to implement it?
  2. What type of reception (indoor/outdoor) do you think is more appropriate at initial stage?
  3. Which business model serves the community’s and Mobile operator’s interest better and why?
  4. Do you prefer other business models? If yes please specify?
  5. What spectrum resource (Number of channels) do you think should be allotted in each area and per “operator”?
  6. Do you think that DVB-H is the right technology to be implemented in Oman? If not what mobile broadcasting alternative standard other than DVB-H suits the needs of the Sultanate better? And Why?

All comments will be taken into consideration. The Authority is however not bound to accept any or all received comments.

Interested parties are requested when providing their comments to specify contact details including address and contact number. All comments must be received no later than 22nd of September 2008.

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