At the World Radiocommunications Conference, held from 23 January to 17 February 2012 (WRC-12), additional spectrum was assigned to the mobile service in the 694-790 MHz band1 in Region 1 (which includes Europe, Africa and the Middle East) in "co-primary" mode to broadcasting, identifying the spectrum for IMT (International Mobile Telecommunications), with a view to facilitating the development of terrestrial mobile broadband applications. However, this assignment in the 700 MHz band will only be effective after the WRC-15 conference, which is scheduled for 2-27 November 2015, i.e., after study of the a) broadcasting and mobile spectrum requirements b) channelling to be adopted for mobile and c) validation of the lower limits of the range, as well as d) compatibility with existing services and adjacent bands.
In parallel, a number of EU initiatives are underway with a view to devising harmonised implementation of the Digital Dividend 2, and the EC Radio Spectrum Committee (RSC) is concluding a mandate to the European Conference of Postal and Telecommunications Administrations (CEPT) to prepare technical studies (including channelling) and identify common and minimum technical conditions for the introduction of broadband wireless systems in the 694-790 MHz band.
This assignment, which has some likelihood of being accomplished, will entail a change in the DTT network topology associated with Mux A, since, internationally, no single frequency network below 694 MHz is planned and coordinated for Portugal, where the current network could migrate.
However, even with the likely release of spectrum in the 700 MHz band and the consequent change to DTT network topology (currently operated on an SFN basis) to a multi-frequency network (MFN), spectrum remains available, including the three MFN networks planned pursuant to the 2006 Geneva Agreement (GE06) for mobile reception, that may be adapted, within certain constraints, in order to respond to the scenarios defined for the future of television in Portugal, whereas the government remains responsible for audiovisual policy.
With the implementation of DTT and the consequent switch-off of analogue transmissions on 26 April, a significant amount of radio spectrum was released, as a result of the efficiency of broadcasting in digital format.
Transmissions in analogue took up about 400 MHz of radio spectrum, whereas the same transmissions in digital format on the mainland are all accommodated in a single Multiplexer, which, associated with a single frequency network (SFN) takes up 8 MHz.
As such, and even discounting the portion that has been attributed to electronic communications services in the process related to the Digital Dividend in the 800 MHz band (790-862 MHz), the spectrum released as a result of the switch-off of analogue television enables accommodation of Digital Dividend 2 and also the allocation of spectrum to audiovisual activities.
1 Also referred to as the "Digital Dividend 2" or ''700 MHz range''.
