ITU offers guidelines on digital migration

The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) has issued guidelines to help countries of the world to migrate from analogue to digital broadcasting.

Presenting the guidelines at the ITU World Telecommunication Development Conference (WTDC-10) in Hyderabad, India, the Director of ITU’s Telecommunication Development Bureau, Mr. Sami Al Basheer Al Morshid said the transition to digital broadcasting is a major challenge facing most countries globally, but in particular, developing and least developed countries.

“We hope that our members will take full advantage of this very practical set of guidelines designed to help them through the process. ITU will also help countries implement the guidelines through country-level assistance and regional initiatives,” he said.

According to him, the transition to digital broadcasting has become an important global issue and is expected to provide a greater number of channels with higher quality within the same available bandwidth along with advanced applications and features, such as interactivity and electronic programme guides.

A press statement from ITU said this transition also frees up spectrum for “digital dividend”, which could be used for enhanced broadcasting applications and wireless mobile broadband, leading to greater convergence of services.

ITU also described migration as a key solution to extend Internet access to currently underserved areas.

ITRealms Online gathered that the guidelines provide information and recommendations on policy, regulation, technologies, network planning, customer awareness and business planning for the smooth transition to Digital Terrestrial Television Broadcasting (DTTB) and the introduction of Mobile Television Broadcasting (MTV).

Further, the guidelines are applicable to the Geneva 2006 frequency plan (GE06) agreement, corresponding to the geographical region situated to the west of meridian 170° E and north of parallel 40° S, except the territories of Mongolia, and including the Islamic Republic of Iran.

The guideline for the transition from analogue to digital broadcasting was developed by the ITU Telecommunication Development Bureau with the support of the Korean Communications Commission (KCC), Republic of Korea.

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