Spain approves DTT reorganisation to make way for LTE

José Manuel Soria Lopez

The Spanish government has approved a reorganisation of the country’s digital-terrestrial transmission infrastructure to enable the allocation of spectrum in the 800MHz range for LTE mobile services.

The transition will mean that antennas will have to retuned for close to one million residential buildings over the course of next year, at an estimated cost of €286 million. The Spanish government has this week committed to spend €290 million to fix the problem.

The one million buildings that will require retuning of antennas cover an estimated 55% of Spanish households.

Spanish industry minister José Manuel Soria Lopez said that the changes would have no impact on individual citizens and would require the retuning of collective antennas. The €286 million bill is €36 million more than previous estimates.

The changes to Spain’s DTT infrastructure will see the number of multiplexes reduced from 10 to eight. Commercial channels will move from multiplex six to multiplex five. The country’s autonomous regions will see their allocation reduced from two muxes to one, while public broadcaster RTVE will see its allocation reduced from two muxes to one and a half.