Government chooses cellphone TV standard

The Financial Mail reports in its issue of 4 June on the pronouncement by Minister Ivy Matsepe-Casaburri that South Africa will have to use DVB-H standard for delivering television content to cellphone screens. One has to wonder why the government is involved at all in regulating a matter as trivial as the broadcasting of eGoli to the dinky little screen of some teenager's (who else will have the time to watch?) cellphone. But no, the government not only thinks that it should be involved in this highly trivial industry but that it will also make the wise decision, binding on all, on which specific protocols should be used for the transmission.

Of course, the government should to some extent regulate the use of common resources such as the radio frequency spectrum. But how, in philosophy or in fantasy, can one believe that the government should decide whether any part of that spectrum be used for cellphone television or for, say, wireless credit card processing?