Free-to Air DTT on air by end of October

Ireland’s minister for communications Eamon Ryan has told parliament that digital free-to-air services from RTE will be on air by the end of October and that Ireland will fulfil its obligations to complete Analogue Switch-Off (ASO) in the final quarter of 2012. He went on to say that the ASO date was not dependant on a commercial operator coming forward to provide extra choice for the service. Negotiations with several successive and prospective DTT operators have recently failed.
Ryan went on to tell The Dáil that public broadcaster RTE had assured him it would be in a position to launch services to 90% of the population by October 31, 2010; “I have informed RTE that the date for the provision of a full national digital terrestrial television service is 31 December 2011”.
In the absence of a commercial player a working group has been established to set the necessary technical standards. Ryan said receivers are ready to go. They will be tested by Sweden’s Teracom and comply with specifications set out by the Scandinavia standards body NorDig.
Source: Broadband TV News
Item added: 7th June 2010