On March 26, the United Kingdom’s Minister for Culture and Digital Economy, Ed Vaizey, officially launched the new local DAB expansion program at SMMTConnected, a car conference in London.
The program will create 182 new transmitters, providing coverage from local DAB stations for 90 percent of the population and add 4,100 miles of roads into DAB coverage, said a516digital.
Over 50 local areas are set to benefit from the new transmitters. Construction is planned to finish by the end of 2016; the project’s completion will mean that the switchover coverage criteria will have been met.
The U.K. government, the BBC and commercial multiplex operators are jointly funding the buildout.
Meanwhile, the BBC is halfway through the construction of 162 new digital radio transmitters to improve DAB coverage for its national network stations.
