China's broadcasting industry regulator has announced it will require all mobile phone service providers in China to use a China-developed technology standard for broadcasting television signals to mobile phones.

The State Administration of Radio, Film and TV (SARFT) announced the new standard, STiMi, earlier this week in advance of an international forum on standards for mobile phone television.

STiMi, short for Satellite Terrestrial Interactive Multi-service Infrastructure, was developed by the SARFT-affiliated Academy of Broadcast Science and will be applied across the country beginning next month, said a researcher who declined to be named.

"The introduction of STiMi, which is China's independent intellectual property right, demonstrates that China has world leading technology in the field, and will not have to submit to the standards of other countries," he said.

Compared to mobile phone TV standards in other countries, the STiMi is better as it will use satellites to operate in China, he said.

Major mobile service providers, such as China Mobile and China Unicom, have already set up mobile TV systems of their own, and their mobile phone TV service already has more than 1.5 million subscribers.

Asked if the new standard will conflict with standards already in use in China, a SARFT official would only say there are no conflicts of interest between Chinese mobile service providers and SARFT.

"The real fight is between the domestic industry and foreign standard makers," he added.

Yet a source with a Chinese mobile service provider said it will be difficult to promote the new standard.
 
"It will take a while before the cell phone TV service with the new standard can penetrate the market," he said. "Few people are willing to invest in the new-born standard."

China now has 420 million mobile phone subscribers and the number of subscribers increased by more than 30 million from January to June this year.

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