Spain clears the 700 MHz band and prepares for full HD

On October 31^st, Spain cleared the 700 MHz band after the original clearance date was postponed due to the Covid crisis.

Cellnex Telecom, together with all the Spanish Broadcasting sector, carried out the process smoothly in two phases, in March and October 2020. Namely :

• All programmes remained accessible during the process.
• The process had a minimum impact to citizens.
• Consumers received 145M€ in financial support for aerials adaptation.
• The replanning of the sub700Mhz channels made SFN areas larger improving spectrum efficiency.

Coming up next in Spain is the migration to 100% HD before 2023.

Also, UHD technical trials using HEVC DVB-T2 are on air seeking for the update of the current receiver TV sets.

For more information, contact :

Jaume Pujol, Head of Regulation, Cellnex Telecom & Head of the Policy Working Group, Broadcast Networks Europe, jaume.pujol@broadcast-networks.eu