South Korean tech standard adopted

CAMBODIA has adopted South Korean technology as the domestic standard for broadcasting, covering the spectrum from television to mobile phones, according to Minister of Information Khieu Kanharith.

Terrestrial-Digital Multimedia Broadcasting was agreed on as Cambodia’s standard in an agreement signed by the Khieu Kanharith and Korea Communications Commission vice chairwoman Lee Kyung-ja in Phnom Penh this week.

“We adopted T-DMB as a platform for mobile television,” the minister wrote on Wednesday. “The Ministry of Information will be monitoring this technology.”

Cambodia plans to commercially offer T-DMB service by the end of the year, after trialling the service for much of 2010 at the National Television of Cambodia station, according to a translated KCC press release.

During the October 2009 visit of Korean President Lee Myung-bak to Cambodia, Khieu Kanharith and Korean officials signed a deal to test T-DMB at the Ministry of Information-run National Television of Cambodia.

Lee Myung-bak was formerly an economic advisor to Prime Minister Hun Sen. Khieu Kanharith did not return a request for comment yesterday on whether rival mobile digital television technologies – such as the European Union’s “preferred technology” DVB-H – would be permitted to operate in Cambodia.

South Korea-based phone manufacturer LG electronics launched the first-ever DMB-compliant mobile handset in 2004, according to a Cambodian representative of the firm. However, the firm did not return request for comment yesterday on whether it had DMB compliant handsets available for purchase.
(source from the phnompenhpost newspaper, Friday, 27 August 2010 15:01 Jeremy Muillins )