Poison Ivy’s eurocentrism

In the wake of communications minister Ivy Matsepe-Casaburri’s diktat that a single national mobile broadcasting network would be created in South Africa, based on the DVB-H standard, news from Europe appears to support her:

The European Commission Wednesday urged national governments and industry to take up DVB-H as the single standard for mobile television in the 27-nation bloc.

While Wednesday’s call isn’t a legal mandate to solely use DVB-H to broadcast TV over a wireless handheld device, the commission said it may in 2008 propose binding rules requiring the exclusive use of DVB-H in the European Union.

Amazingly, it goes on to claim:

The Brussels-based executive and regulatory branch of the E.U. “is not choosing a winner” but is simply giving “the market the clear signal that it should move voluntarily, but quickly, to a single standard.”

The DVB-H standard is based on Nokia Corp. (NOK) technology for mobile TV, which the commission said is the strongest standard for mobile TV.

Needless to say, the industry opposes such intervention. It believes the Eurocrats are disingenuous when they say the move will be “voluntary” and they’re not “choosing a winner”. Granted, there are drawbacks to the market fragmentation caused by competing standards, and competition is not guaranteed to pick the superior solution in the end. But there is no reason to believe that central planning is any better at choosing the right winner. Worse, eliminating competition can actually harm consumers because neither quality nor price will come under pressure. Why would anyone have a motive to improve DVB-H now that it’s been chosen as de jure winner? In agreeing that people can’t be trusted to make their own economic decisions, I guess Poison Ivy will feel vindicated by the mandarins of Europe.