Paraguayan telcos prepare for digital TV


Details

Juan Fernandez Gonzalez

| 29 January 2016




Paraguay's Conatel has published the national telecoms plan, aiming to kick-off private DTT deployment this year.



The country's telecom authority has decided to start reorganising the radio-electric spectrum so that DTT and LTE networks have their own frequency-slots. The national plan, the industry's framework from now until 2020, says that the digital TV deployment will start later this year, although the process is not expected to be concluded until 2024.

The document calls upon the industry to contribute to the final DTT switchover plan, “from setting general rules to planning acquisition, distribution and installation of DTT-ready equipment”.

Teresa Palacios, Conatel's president, said the first step is to clear the 700Mhz band so that it is free for telecom operators. “This frequency is to be clear soon, as we are moving analogue TV stations to other slots. And we're already testing digital TV signals.”

Paraguay has one of the slowest DTT deployments in Latin America. It started in 2011, when the country's public network began to broadcast digitally, but still no other companies have moved over to digital technology.