GOVERNMENT TO RECONSIDER THE EUROPEAN STANDARD ONCE MORE!

The much-awaited issuance of the implementing rules and regulation (IRR) on Digital Terrestrial Television will most likely not happen this year.

Gamaliel Cordoba, commissioner of the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC), told Malaya Business Insight in a phone interview that the government had asked the NTC, along with the Department of Science and Technology (DOST), to make a "migration plan" for the smooth shift from analog to digital TV.

Cordoba said that the migration plan must be included in the IRR.

"The migration plan will be included in the IRR," Cordoba said, adding that the issuance will probably happen by early next year.

The rules were originally scheduled for release in June this year, a year after NTC released Memorandum Circular No. 02-06-2010 which sets the standards for digital TV broadcast service.

NTC has chosen Japan’s Integrated Services Digital Broadcast-Terrestrial (ISDB-T) as the country’s sole standard for DTT, but the new administration asked the NTC to conduct another review.

The government wants the NTC to compare between European and Japanese standards and find out which is better for the country in terms of technical and cost effectiveness.

Although the country has chosen Japanese standards over the European, the government has yet to sign a formal agreement with Japan. .

The NTC has established a technical working group composed of stakeholders of the television broadcast industry, including the Kapisanan ng mga Brodkaster ng Pilipinas (KBP), for the formulation of the implementing rules and regulation for DTT.

KBP and its members were in favor of Japanese standard because of its affordable set-top boxes and the assistance that the Japanese government promised the Philippines.

By MYLA IGLESIAS

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