On the night of Monday March 25 to Tuesday March 26, 2019, TDF technicians will be working on the 6 sites of the main network as part of the digital terrestrial television (DTT) frequency rearrangement. The rearrangements will continue until the end of the week on the 70 sites of the complementary network. Some thirty technicians will be mobilized throughout the operation.
As a reminder, the DTT platform is the leading mode of TV reception in France, with coverage of 97% of the population and 68% of households using it (IFOP survey-May 2018, available at www.tdf.fr).
The area concerned by this new phase of redevelopment covers more than 4.1 million inhabitants in the region of Brittany (departments of Ille-et-Vilaine, Morbihan, Côtes d'Armor and Finistère) and Normandy, around the departments of Calvados, Orne and Manche.
The main towns are Rennes (35), Caen (14), Cherbourg (50), Alençon (61), Vannes (56) and Brest (29).
Homes in these areas will need to perform an automatic channel scan to continue receiving all DTT channels.
An operation of precision and expertise
The vastness of this geographical area makes this operation a delicate one. Interventions require expert know-how and precision. TDF technicians are mobilized in advance and on D-day to restore digital terrestrial television broadcasting as quickly as possible, to ensure continuity of service.
A supervision unit has been set up to closely monitor the entire operation at the 76 TDF sites concerned.
Operations will take place in two stages:
- At the 6 sites on TDF's main network, operations will take place between 1 a.m. and 8 a.m. on Monday night, to enable as many viewers as possible to get their DTT channels back on Tuesday morning;
- At the 70 other sites on the complementary network, the work will continue until the end of the week.
The work will mainly involve changing the multiplexing cell and modifying the transmission configuration. On this occasion, TDF will modify 139 frequencies.
New frequencies for mobile operators
The rearrangement of DTT frequencies, which began in October 2017, is entering its eleventh phase. The 3,400 DTT frequencies are gradually being rearranged to enable the 700 MHz band to be transferred, making new frequencies available to operators and thus providing better mobile coverage across France. Thirteen rearrangement phases are scheduled until June 2019. This nationwide frequency reorganization operation concerns all French households.
The Nouvelle-Aquitaine, Provence-Alpes-Côte-d'Azur, Occitanie, Pays de la Loire, Grand-Est, Bourgogne-Franche-Comté and Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes regions have already undergone DTT upgrades, as did the Île-de-France region in April 2016, when it switched over to High Definition DTT. In each phase, the work was carried out successfully. This transfer of frequencies has enabled mobile operators to roll out their 4G networks in the 700 MHz band.