The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) has announced the first set of global standards for Internet Protocol TV. The standards were announced following the seventh and final meeting of ITU's Focus Group on IPTV, and include high-level architecture and frameworks needed to rollout IPTV services. "Standards are crucial for IPTV to reach its market potential and global audience," said Malcom Johnson, director of ITU's telecommunication standardization bureau. "They are necessary in order to give service providers – whether traditional broadcasters, ISPs, cable operators or telecoms service providers – control over their platforms and their offerings. Standards here will encourage innovation, help mask the complexity of services, guarantee quality of service, ensure interoperability and, ultimately, help players remain competitive."

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A new report from Analysys says that while US wireless operators have done a good job at building the foundation for the broader adoption of mobile media and entertainment (MME), they are in fact holding its growth back. "Overly complex pricing models for MME services, as well as carriers' reluctance to withdraw from areas of the MME value chain that do not play to their strengths, are inhibiting MME market growth," according to Alexandra Rehak, US research director at Analysys, and lead author of the report, Mobile Media and Entertainment Markets in the US: value chains and pricing models.

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The GSM Association and the Open Mobile Alliance, two of the global wireless industry's most important associations, have taken up the effort to spur adoption of 2D barcodes in mobile marketing. The push for 2D barcodes in mobile marketing is spearheaded by the Mobile Codes Consortium (MC2), a cross industry group created to further promote unified standards for the technology. The consortium consists of NeoMedia Technologies Inc., Publicis Groupe, Hewlett-Packard, Deutsche Telekom, KPN, Nokia, Qualcomm and Telefonica O2 Europe.

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