Intense debate aims at future shape of digital broadcast services

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28 June 2006 News

The ITU Regional Radiocommunication Conference (RRC-06) has been making quiet but steady progress towards an 'all-digital' terrestrial broadcasting service for radio and television. In its first week of deliberations in Geneva, RRC-06 took decisions to allow iteration of the complex software tools used by the ITU secretariat as a basis to generate the draft plan that will facilitate digital broadcasts around the world in the future.

Yoshio Utsumi, secretary general of ITU, noted that digital terrestrial broadcasting is now a reality in many countries. "Many have already established a cut-off date for migration from analog to digital terrestrial broadcasting," he said. "Recognising the advantages of the digital dividend, these countries are demanding immediate and unrestricted access to digital bandwidths. Meanwhile, other countries remain protective of the analog system."

In view of this divergence, a major challenge is to find ways of permitting digital and analog broadcasting systems to co-habit on the radio frequency spectrum without causing interference. A regional agreement for the digital service, planned in the frequency bands 174-230 MHz and 470-862 MHz, should be reached at the end of the next five weeks of deliberations with important implications for countries of Europe and Africa (Region 1) and the Middle East and the Islamic Republic of Iran (Region 3).

Digital terrestrial television broadcasting is already a reality in many countries within the planning area. In countries where terrestrial television is still dominant, application of digital broadcasting is providing more channels and increasing choice for the consumers. In other countries where there is a much higher penetration of cable and satellite and less reliance on terrestrial broadcasting, digital broadcasting offers mobile reception of video, Internet and multimedia data.

Digital broadcasting is roughly six times more efficient than analog, allowing more channels to be carried across fewer airwaves. The plans for digital switchover will therefore allow for an increase in the efficiency with which the spectrum is used, opening the way for wireless innovation and the potential for new services.

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Intense debate aims at future shape of digital broadcast services

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