abertis telecom

Press room

The government of Navarra and abertis telecom agree to bring forward the implementation of DTT across the entire autonomous community

Navarra, the first Autonomous Community in Spain to broadcast its national, regional and local programmes simultaneously and in the their entirety on DTT

Barcelona, April 16th, 2007

Barcelona, 4 April 2007.- More than 91% of the population of Navarra will have access to a DTT signal from today thanks to the start up of eight transmission centres located in Tudela, San Miguel de Aralar, Estella, San Cristóbal, El Perdón, Leyre, Yerga and Elizondo. This broadcast date, achieved through an agreement between the Government of Navarra, Abertis Telecom and Opnatel (a public enterprise that manages and operates Navarra’s telecommunications centres), is more than a year in advance of the deadlines established in Spain’s National Technical Plan, which planned the end of this phase for 2008.

In October of this year, this cover will be extended, in a second phase, to reach 94.9% of the population of Navarra by means of the incorporation of nine additional centres spread between Peralta, San Esteban, Lesaka, Mendaza, Leitza, Ayesa, Larraintzar, Baraibar and Arraioz. The deployment will continue until 99% of the Autonomous Community’s population is covered.

Facilitating public access

In this way, Navarra places itself at the forefront of implanting DTT in Spain, where the analogue “switch-off” is planned for 2010. Navarra becomes the country’s first Autonomous Community to jointly deploy national, regional and local DTT programming on an integrated basis. This implementation facilitates public access to Digital Terrestrial Television, since the adaptation of aerials and the acquisition of decoders is performed on a unified basis for all programmes and applications.

DTT currently offers 25 freeview programmes, including local, regional and national, which included 20 programmes.

The bringing forward of the implementation of this service is thanks to the approval of an addendum to the collaboration agreement signed by the Government of Navarra and Retevisión, the telecommunications subsidiary of Abertis Telecom, in 1995 to carry out the deployment of DTT in the Autonomous Community. With this new agreement, the two organisations extend their cooperation for five years more than initially agreed, up to 31 December 2015, and include in the agreement Opnatel, a public enterprise that currently manages and operates Navarra’s telecommunications centres and which is responsible, on a complementary basis, for the television broadcast service in Navarra.

Centre	Start-up date
Tudela	April 2007
San Miguel de Aralar	April 2007
Estella	April 2007
San Cristóbal	April 2007
El Perdón II	April 2007
Leyre	April 2007
Yerga	April 2007
Elizondo (Gorramendi)	April 2007
Peralta	October 2007
San Esteban	October 2007
Lesaka	October 2007
Mendaza	October 2007
Leitza	October 2007
Ayesa	October 2007
Larraintzar	October 2007
Valle de Araiz II (Baraibar)	October 2007
Arraioz	October 2007

 

The advantages of DTT

Digital Terrestrial Television, and evolution of today’s analogue television, involves a new form of broadcasting with uses the current network of repeaters but which sends a signal in digital format.

Digital technology optimises the use of the radio-electrical spectrum, thus making possible the reception of many more channels, the use of electronic programming guides or employing wide-screen format. What is more, it improves image and sound quality, offers multilingual programmes and permits access to interactive content.

About Abertis Telecom

Via retevisión and tradia, abertis telecom possesses Spain’s leading network of sites for the broadcasting and distribution of radio and TV signals, and offers the most advanced audiovisual services for the analogue and digital broadcasting of television and radio. It also provides mobile radio communications services for public security and emergency networks and telecommunications services for telephone operators.

abertis telecom forms part of abertis, Europe’s leading infrastructure group in terms of stock market capitalisation (at close to 14,000 million euros) and a top company in terms of financial solvency and profits. abertis telecom’s strategy is oriented towards growth in Spain with the promotion and development of digital technology, in accordance with the National Technical Plan for the development of DTT, with the implementation of integrated mobile communications for operators, corporate networks and security and emergency services. It also works towards international growth with investment in radio and TV transmission and broadcasting networks.