Trai charts digital radio roadmap
The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) on Friday released recommendations for introducing a digital radio broadcast policy for private radio broadcasters. The regulator has also proposed reserve prices for spectrum auctions in 13 major cities and a shift to simulcast operations that combine analogue and digital services.
Trai said the new system would allow each broadcaster to transmit one analogue, three digital and one data channel on a single frequency, compared with only one analogue channel at present. Reserve prices have been recommended for allocating spectrum in four metros — Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, and Chennai, and nine ‘A’ category cities, including Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Pune, Ahmedabad, Surat, Jaipur, Lucknow, Kanpur and, Nagpur.
