Around 75% of the 243 transmitters in the digital terrestrial television (DTT) network that used to transmit in the 700 MHz band have already migrated to the new frequency, corresponding to 184 transmitters migrated to date. Last week, in a process that ran quite smoothly, five transmitters were retuned to the new frequency in remote mode.
In order to meet the DTT migration schedule and release the 700 MHz band needed to deploy 5G, the last 35 transmitters of the German brand Rohde & Schwarz, at the company’s own suggestion, are being retuned remotely.
Due to recent developments in the COVID-19 pandemic in Portugal, the German company announced that it would not authorise its technicians to travel to mainland Portugal beginning on 19 October, thereby suspending on-site work.
If MEO were not to approve the tuning in remote mode proposed by Rohde & Schwarz (R&S), the scheduled public communication initiatives on DTT migration could not be made in due time, seriously compromising the interests of people who, not being properly informed, would be unprepared to make the adaptation needed to keep watching free TV. Furthermore, this would create ambiguity regarding the final completion date of the band release process, which would not occur until the circumstances of the pandemic allowed R&S technicians to return to Portugal.
Since the start of the DTT network migration process on 7 February, ANACOM’s call centre (800 102 002) has taken 74,939 calls, with around 3,550 cases of home support to tune equipment.
