More Openings For Free Radio Access in Smartphones and Tablets

Mobile operator offers subscribers unlimited music streaming.

Swedish telecom and broadband operator Three (3) from now on provides their customers with an unlimited surf pool for music streaming via services Spotify, Deezer and Tidal. More services will be added later on.

Russia Testing Digital System Below the FM Band

DRM+ Broadcasts in Band I

Russian Television and Radio Broadcasting Network has started a full DRM+ trial on Radio Mayak (Radio Lighthouse) in St. Petersburg on the 67.46 frequency. This new test is similar to one that took place in Moscow in December 2014, says the Digital Radio Mondiale organization.

First global satellite high speed mobile broadband service

Full global service by end of 2015 by three Inmarsat satellites 

The Inmarsat-5 F3 satellite will cover the Pacific Ocean Region and will, together with Inmarsat-5 F1 and Inmarsat-5 F2, create what the company says is “the world’s first globally available, high-speed mobile broadband service, delivered through a single provider”. 

Global Xpress will deliver broadband speeds around 100 times faster than the company’s fourth generation constellation, offering services for customers in both the public and private sectors, especially in the most remote and inaccessible regions of the world.

Digital Radio Will Not Replace FM in Australia

DAB+ proposed to be supplementary to analogue platforms

In the Department of Communications report the conclusion is that Australia should not replace AM/FM with DAB+ but rather focus on analogue platforms and make DAB+ as a supplementary alternative. There is no clear picture of the future for digital terrestrial radio.

The cost and complexity of rolling out DAB plus-based digital terrestrial radio services across regional Australia present major challenges for the industry according to the report. The need to cover large geographic areas with small and dispersed populations offers unique challenges which have not been faced in many international markets.

EBU Condemns Swedish Government Decision to Stop DAB Radio

Decision to retain FM radio plagues DAB developments. 

The decision to retain FM radio in Sweden has created an uproar amongst DAB proponents and lobbyists in Europe. In Sweden the unusual approach by the Director General of Swedish public radio (SR) and EBU Member Cilla Benkö by protesting against the government has been duly noted in media. Now also the EBU has joined her in condemning the decision. News that the Swedish government is to postpone the development of a digital terrestrial network has been widely criticised as 'short-sighted and retrograde' by public service broadcasters across Europe writes EBU on its web site.  

Final Stop For DAB Radio in Sweden

Joins Finland rejecting the DAB technology and retaining FM
Democracy too strong for longtime lobbyism

The Swedish government has announced it will not go ahead with plans to replace FM radio with digital DAB+ broadcasting. In the daily Svenska Dagbladet, the Swedish minister of culture and democracy Alice Bah Kuhnke writes that there is not enough support for introducing digital radio. Among the main reasons for retaining FM is that 10 million FM receivers would have to be replaced.

The culture minister also points to concerns from the Swedish defense, which uses some of the DAB frequencies, and that there are some reports that the planned DAB networks wouldn’t have the same coverage area as the current FM networks.