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The CSA announced on Wednesday a new strategy to accelerate the deployment of DAB+. Following consultation, the CSA decided to revise the modalities and the schedule of calls for candidacy to allocate frequencies of radio diffusion in DAB+. Three major calls for applications are now planned: the first two, in July 2018 and at the latest in July 2019, will each focus on "fifteen zones centered on agglomerations of more than 175,000 inhabitants" and with a small number of local areas. The third call, envisaged mid-2018 this time will concern frequencies at the national level. The less populated areas will be covered in a second phase after 2020.

The DAB + is deployed in Paris, Marseille and Nice on a total of 14 multiplexes after a first call for applications. Two calls involving a total of 30 multiplexes are in progress, notably in Lyon, Lille, Nantes, Rouen, Douai-Lens, Strasbourg, Béthune, Valenciennes, Mulhouse, Dunkirk, Le Havre and Saint-Nazaire. The Council conducted from 27 July to 4 October 2017 a public consultation on accelerating the local deployment of DAB + and on how to organize a metropolitan call for applications. It received 47 contributions, representing all the components of the radio sector (publishers and their unions, distributors, broadcast providers, multiplex operators, receiver manufacturers).

Pure's Siesta S6 is probably the fanciest alarm clock you've ever clapped eyes on. As well as DAB and FM tuners, this bedside radio has Bluetooth built in.

SBS announced that audiences in Canberra and Darwin will now have access to a range of new radio stations with the launch of DAB+ radio services. The introduction of DAB+ services in Darwin and Canberra will be on a par with the digital services offered to audiences in the other five state capitals. In the Canberra market, certain ABC and SBS services are currently provided on a trial basis and audiences will need to retune their DAB+ receivers on 8 January 2018 to ensure they enjoy the available new range of ABC and SBS Radio services.

At the last meeting, the National Council for Television and Radio Broadcasting approved the competitive conditions and decided to announce a tender of radio stations for 14 places in the digital standard T-DAB in Kiev. The operator of the multichannel radio network will be the Concern RRT, the capacity of the multiplex is 14 radio channels.

Italian broadcaster RAI is planning to transition to DAB+ after the government's decision in the 2018 Budget to make the DAB+ signal mandatory in all new FM radio stations starting from January 1, 2019.

After announcing a competition for digital broadcasting in Kiev, the National Council has made the first step towards the introduction of a new technology for the spread of radio signals in Ukraine. This was stated during the briefing of the National Council on December 21. In order to implement the digital radio implementation project in Kiev, digital transmitters will be installed at the facilities of the Concern RRT for two years. At the first stage - in January-June 2018 in Kiev will be installed two transmitters with a capacity of 2 and 1 kW, and in the second half of next year, the broadcast of the first radio stations will be launched. A year later it is planned to install a transmitter in Brovary, which will significantly improve the coverage of the left-bank signal in Ukraine.

In the summer of 2014 digital radio made its official debut in France — specifically, Paris, Nice and Marseille. The scheduled roll-out of digital radio in that country has accelerated recently — it will be deployed next spring in Lille, Lyon and Strasbourg, and then in 30 major cities by 2020.

Members of the National Council noted that this project is experimental. Previously, considerable work was done on UCRF, Concern RRT, which will be the operator of a multichannel network, representatives of the industry. The chairman of the National Council Yuriy Artemenko said that the letter to Patrick Hannon, president of WorldDAB, the global sectoral organization, was sent to the regulator, in which he expressed support for this initiative. "We are happy with the news that Ukraine is launching the introduction of digital broadcasting in the DAB+ standard in Kyiv. The competition, announced today, is an important first step towards ensuring future broadcasting in Ukraine, while the DAB+ standard will bring significant benefits to broadcasters and listeners".

Broadcasting of the first radio stations in the digital standard DAB + can begin in the city of Kiev in the second half of 2018. "The National Council has decided to announce the competition on digital frequencies for the development of broadcasting in the city of Kiev in the DAB+ standard. This decision is significant, since today all broadcasting in Ukraine is carried out in analogue format or in the Internet."