Notice of proposal to make regulations in connection with the award of licences in the frequency bands 542 to 550 MHz and 758 to 766 MHz covering Cardiff and Manchester

  • Start: 29 October 2008
  • Status: Statement published
  • End: 25 November 2008

This document sets out our decisions on the award on a geographic basis of part of the spectrum that is being freed up for new uses by the switchover to digital transmission of television. It focuses on the first phase of awards, for spectrum lots covering Cardiff and Manchester.

By switching from analogue to digital transmissions (i.e. digital switchover – ‘DSO’) more television channels can be broadcast using less spectrum. The spectrum that is no longer needed for television can be released to the market for other services. All TV transmissions in the UK will have switched to digital in 2012. We call the released spectrum the digital dividend.

There are two distinct categories of spectrum in the digital dividend: the spectrum that by 2012 will be totally cleared of television transmissions (‘cleared spectrum’); and, capacity available within the spectrum that will be used after DSO to carry the six existing digital terrestrial television (‘DTT’) multiplexes. We are concerned in this document with the second type, which we call the geographic interleaved spectrum. It is so called because for each channel within this spectrum there are geographic areas where it will not be used for DTT. In those areas the unused channels may be used for other services.


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