Marinescu, ANCOM: Delay In Transition To Digital TV Not A Hindrance To 4G Telephony

05.11.2011 ZF English

The legal framework for Romania's transition to digital television will not be adopted sooner than in two months' time, says Marius Fecioru, secretary of state in the Communications Ministry.

The draft laws that contain the terms and conditions of Romania's transition to digital television are in the process of being approved by the ministries, but the date when they will be approved is unknown and difficult to estimate, said Catalin Marinescu, chairman of the Communications Regulatory Authority (ANCOM), one of the institutions involved in the process, at the conference "Romania in High Definition," organised by the Association for Digital Communications (ACD) at Bucharest's Marriott Hotel.

He said, however, that the delay of the transition has its advantages. "On the other hand, I think content providers have started to understand the economic model of using terrestrial digital television as opposed to the providing TV channels through other mediums - cable. Whilst in the case of cable, providers of content get revenues from operators, in the case of terrestrial digital television, the balance between the revenues they would make and their payments to the multiplex operator will be the key to success," said Marinescu. According to him, apart from the broadcasting of public television channels, for the rest of the televisions, there should be a subscription "in order to allow a long-term development."

"Fortunately, in Romania, the broadcast of analogue signals and the clearing out of part of the frequency band - channels 61 and 69 -to use them for other purposes, such as fourth-generation mobile telephony, are not related. Suspending analogue television is not related to clearing the spectrum. The digital dividend could be available within the next few years," added Marinescu.