On the night of Monday May 13 to Tuesday May 14, 2019, TDF technicians will be working on the 14 sites of the main network to rearrange the frequencies of digital terrestrial television (DTT). Rearrangements will continue until the end of the week on the 65 sites of the complementary network. Throughout the operation, some forty technicians will be mobilized.
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).
Homes in this geographical area (7.8 million inhabitants) will have 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 79 TDF sites concerned.
Operations will take place in two stages:
- At the 14 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 other 65 sites on the complementary network, the work will continue until the end of the week.
The interventions will mainly concern changes to the multiplexing cell and modifications to the transmission configuration. On this occasion, TDF will modify 142 frequencies.
New frequencies for mobile operators
The rearrangement of DTT frequencies, which began in October 2017, is entering its twelfth phase. DTT's 3,400 frequencies are gradually being rearranged to enable the transfer of the 700 MHz band to make new frequencies available to operators, and thus provide better mobile coverage across France. Thirteen rearrangement phases are scheduled until June 2019. This nationwide frequency reorganization operation concerns all French households.
Nouvelle-Aquitaine, Provence-Alpes-Côte-d'Azur, Occitanie, Pays de la Loire, Grand-Est, Bourgogne-Franche-Comté, Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes and Bretagne have already undergone DTT rearrangements, as has the Île-de-France region, in April 2016, at the time of the switchover to High Definition DTT. In each phase, the interventions were 2/2 successful.
This transfer of frequencies has enabled mobile operators to roll out their 4G networks in the 700 MHz band.
* The area covered by this new phase of redevelopment includes Hauts-de-France (Aisne, Oise and Somme departments, Nord and Pas-de-Calais), western Normandy (Seine-Maritime and Eure departments) and part of the Centre-Val de-Loire region (Eure-et-Loir).
The main cities are Calais (62), Lille (59), Amiens (50), Le Havre (76), Rouen (76), Chartres (28), Saint-Quentin (02) and Beauvais (60).