Over 100 countries now committed to DVB-T for Digital Terrestrial TV

18 July 2006

In a press release issued today, the DVB Project welcomed the successful completion of the ITU’s Regional Radiocommunication Conference (RRC-06). The participating countries from Europe, Africa and the Middle East have agreed a new frequency plan for Bands III, IV and V replacing the Stockholm ’61 agreements. Digital terrestrial television in these regions will thus be based solely on DVB-T.

RRC-06 involved some 100 countries including all European, African and Middle Eastern nations. The conference aimed to create a frequency plan and associated coordination agreements for an all digital environment based exclusively on DVB-T. This now brings to at least 114 the number of countries that have launched or will in future launch DVB-T services.

Peter MacAvock, Executive Director of the DVB Project stated “DVB is proud to have developed the transmission technology that underlies the excellent achievements at the planning conference. All the participants are to be congratulated for their contribution. The plan facilitates the deployment of DVB-T services and confirms the widely held view that DVB-T has become a de-facto world standard. It will also aid in the deployment of HDTV and DVB-H Mobile TV.”
 
RRC-06 brought together 1000 delegates and involved long hours of negotiation and significant computational resources from the administrations involved. The frequency plan currently in force dates from 1961, and is rapidly reaching the end of its useful life. Indeed, it is one of the reasons for the difficulties experienced in extending DVB-T coverage to border regions in some European countries.

Current Global Status of DVB-T