Prospective broadcaster Mobile TV will expand its trial network using Korea’s digital multimedia broadcasting (DMB) technology, to the Western Cape and the Free State, founder Mothobi Mutloatse said on Wednesday.

Mobile TV has already run a trial using DMB — which offers radio and video broadcasting services along with interactive “datacasting” — in Gauteng. It switched on test signals in the province in December 2010.

The two new trials will involve test broadcasts in Bloemfontein and Cape Town, Mutloatse said. The signals will be switched on before the end of the year and will stay live for a 12-month period.

Mutloatse said Mobile TV was also seeking licences from the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa to run trial networks in the Eastern Cape, KwaZulu-Natal, Mpumalanga and Limpopo.

“DMB is a sibling broadcasting technology to DAB, and DAB+,” Mutloatse said. DAB, or digital audio broadcasting, is used for digital radio broadcasts in markets across the world. Already, plans are well advanced for a trial of DAB+ digital radio in Gauteng in 2014.

“DMB uses the same multiplex and infrastructure and causes no interference, has a low carbon footprint, and covers a radius of 70km from a single transmitter, achieving true universal access in the mix,” Mutloatse said.

In its Gauteng trial, Mobile TV broadcast content from SABC 1, SABC 2, MetroFM, 5FM, LM Radio, CNBC Africa, BBC and e.tv.