The ACMA has released its Future delivery of radio report, that lays out its priorities for the future delivery of radio and underlines the vital importance of radio to Australian audiences.
ACMA Chair Nerida O’Loughlin said the ACMA is focused on how Australia can get the most out of its valuable but limited broadcasting frequencies, particularly for FM and digital radio.
“Radio plays a critical role in providing news and informing communities in times of emergencies, as we saw during the bushfires and are seeing now with the COVID-19 pandemic,” Ms O’Loughlin said.
“We know that the radio industry needs to evolve in response to new technology and changing audience preferences, and the spectrum that the ACMA manages is a key part of that evolution.
“We have worked with all parts of the radio sector to understand their views on the future delivery of radio. And in response we are prioritising the frequency planning options that will assist radio broadcasters to make the best choices about their future service delivery.”
The ACMA priorities outlined in the report include the continued transitioning of commercial, community and national services in regional areas from AM to FM where spectrum is readily available, arrangements to allow further rollout of digital radio where this is feasible, coverage improvements for national, commercial and community broadcasting where spectrum is available and support for trials of new types of broadcasting technology.
Among the findings of the report is DAB+ remains the industry preferred long-term digital platform, especially given the level of investment to date.
However, mixed views about the cost–benefit of DAB+ outside the capital cities means that in the short to medium term, DAB+ is likely to rollout only where a commercial licence area can be served with a cost-effective number of transmitters, and/or market pressures require it.
While some sections of the industry support exploring the roll out of DRM as an alternative option for digital wide-coverage area, CRA does not support DRM, given the level of investment in DAB+.
Both CBAA and ABC support exploring DRM for AM as an option for digital wide-area coverage, and additionally, CBAA supported DRM trials and supported looking at how DRM for VHF-FM might allow additional digital radio services.
As for Satellite radio, the ACMA found there is no frequency capability suitable for satellite broadcasting to in-car and portable devices on the current fleet of Optus satellites; none is forecast at this time for the planned Optus replacement satellites.
While technologically feasible, satellite radio via dedicated satellite radio broadcasting networks would likely be prohibitively expensive.
The report also found that the transition to 4G/5G-based broadcasting of radio is not expected to happen in the short or medium term.
With its expected 5G broadcasting capabilities, it is likely to become more widely accepted as a complementary solution to traditional radio broadcasting, but while capable of using the existing broadcasting infrastructure in tower overlay mode, the 4G/5G broadcasting does not provide an obvious solution for coverage in regional and remote area
ACMA Current Priorities
- converting commercial, community and national services from AM to FM in areas where FM spectrum is readily available
- improving coverage of national, commercial and community broadcasting services where spectrum is readily available
- making digital radio channel plans for regional DAB+ where a commercial licensee or national broadcaster has committed to a rollout supporting trials of new broadcasting technology.
This is a very city centric report.
Virtually no digital radio for regional areas given that there are only 8 DAB+ transmission channels available in the populated areas of Australia. High power transmitters have to be at least 336 km apart.
No live radio for the 470,000 Australians + tourists and itinerant workers in remote areas once they are mobile away from home or villages.
With the large areas of fires, no radio which can display maps of the affected areas, giving detailed text instructions and the re-routing of GPS around closed roads, remembering that mobile phones and wireless NBN towers and their powerlines are most venerable to fire.
One remark about use of the L band for DAB+ transmissions. This was already discussed on this site elsewhere.
While some DAB+ receivers such as Pure's Siesta clock radio and the Toyota Camry's infotainment allow reception of the L-band, satellite transmission of DAB+ has failed in Canada.
In addition Mr StJohn mentioned that when a satellite signal is obstructed by a tree or rain or a building, then the reception fails. This is especially so when a simple dipole antenna is used in clock radios and cars compared to a high gain dish with a tracking servo which is expensive.
Thank you,
Anthony of exciting Belfield
Anthony.
The Canadians had L band but terrestrial not satellite. The reason they used L band is that they and the USA use TV channels 7 -13 for TV which is DAB channels 5A - 10D in the VHF band 3 which is much more likely to get through buildings, terrain and trees that L Band cannot. It was also DAB and not DAB+.
Interesting that it took the ACMA 9 1/2 months to release their response on a Friday when Parliament will not meet until August. This is a tactic that the ABC used to switch off high frequency broadcasting in NT and WA.
The ACMA has ignored the availability of TV channels 0 - 2 which are not longer used for DRM where there is now a 6 channel modulator on successive transmission channels this will allow 18 audio programs to be transmitted using a single band 1 TV transmitter. On the other extreme most regional commercial stations have an AM and an FM transmitter which could be replaced by a single DRM+ transmitter, giving stereo to the AM program and better sound.
5G, may well be "old hat" by 2030. In the SMH, 8-12-2020 https://www.smh.com.au/technology/nokia-leads-a-6g-wireless-project-for-european-union-20201208-p56lgm.html the engineers are preparing for 6G technology by 2030.
It is not all one particular entity such as Nokia involved in 6G. Engineers are developing a transistor which can operate in the W-band at 95GHz, source,
https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/8962214. Currently engineers in Argentina and China are experimenting with 6G satellite communications, source, https://www.aa.com.tr/en/asia-pacific/china-launches-worlds-first-6g-experiment-satellite/2034321 .
The latency of the 6G service is expected to be 1000 times faster (1ms) than 5G, and also operate in the Terhertz band source, https://arxiv.org/ftp/arxiv/papers/1909/1909.11315.pdf#:~:text=The%20capacity%20of%206G%20cellular,high%20data%20rates%20%5B32%5D. , page 2 of 12.
Given the potential for higher speed wireless communication, I still posit that fibre-optic communication will be faster than wireless because the wavelength of light is several times shorter than the wavelength of 6G resulting in more data capacity.
Given that engineers/physicists have developed transistors being able to operate at frequencies in terrahertz (THz), it would not surprise me that these transistors will operate in the light frequency.
Remember that the limitation of speed on fibre-optic networks is the speed of the electronics on both ends of the fibre-optic cable.
I know, because when I studied science at Macquarie University, I received a top mark in a fibre-optic laboratory for the limitations in speed of fibre-optic communications.
Thank you,
Anthony of researching Belfield