In a speech at the Lisbon Council in Brussels, EU Commissioner Viviane Reding showed no sign of slowing down her crusade to free up space for mobile broadband and for the transition to digital TV broadcasting.

Calling upon all member countries of the EU to aggressively pursue the transition to digital TV transmission, she said that the speedy freeing up of bandwidth used by analog signals could bring in 50 billion more to the digital dividend.

The digital dividend is freeing up of spectrum brought about by switching terrestrial TV signals from analog to digital transmission. Auctioning of this spectrum is likely to generate a whopping 150 - 200 billion, based on industry estimates. The EU member countries have a mandate to switch over from analog to digital transmission for TV broadcasting no later than 2012. It is this process that Reding has consistently been trying to speed up. But what is mobile broadband all about?.. Best Mobile Broadband answers any questions you may have.

Reding has stated that the digital dividend is crucial to the roll-out of high-speed broadband across Europe, thus looking to offer consumers a wider choice in wireless connectivity and also to improve the quality of transmission in the case of TV broadcasts.

Reding is widely regarded as a crusader for promoting digital accessibility to the masses, a mantle justified by her aggressive implementation of lower data roaming charges in the EU last month. Although not popular with telecom service providers, she still looks hopeful to run for another term in the office.