The analog blackout on radio and TV will not affect the country

SANTO DOMINGO.- The switch from analog radio and television to digital will begin in three days in the United States, but it will not affect the country, there will be no "analog blackout" as the majority of the country believes, nor will it implicate a huge expense on the part of the consumers.

With this in mind, Jose Rafael Vargas, the head of the Dominican Institute of Telecommunications (Indotel), said that the Dominican Republic has been preparing for the transition process from analog to digital for three years.

He revealed that three years ago they began working on the changes, and he gave the example of digital radio, using the Raíces station that belongs to the Leon Jimenes Group, as an example. Of their three stations, two are fully digital. Moreover, they are working with the Dominican Radio and Television network using standards from the United States and Europe.

There are high definition television sets arriving into the country, and it was calculated that there are already 300,000 of them, that have the integrated systems used in the United States, which creates pressure for the country.

Even so, what the institute is looking for is what is most convenient for the country as a standard, whether it is European or the United States or if it is a simple adaptation of a converter box that switches the analog technology to digital and what will be the price.

For Vargas, Indotel has to see what is most convenient for the country and determine what standard consumes less energy and means less investment for the consumers, operators and the state.

He added that in the United States, they had to delay the start of digital television, and the analog blackout will be on the 12th due to the fact that they decided to subsidize the converter boxes in the US. He cited President Obama as saying that they would require US$3 billion to complete the changeover.

He referred to the fact that three years ago a box cost US$60 dollars but now in Europe it costs just US$18 dollars and in the United States the price has fallen to US$25 dollars. The same has happened with radio equipment that can be purchased for US$150 and is continuing to decrease in price.

Vargas clarified that the change from analog to digital in the country would not promote the culture of subsidies because of the low cost of the process. The country has television since 1952 and radio for more than six decades and telecommunications since 1930. "Here there will not be any definitive blackout. The change to digital began in the country three years ago," he said.

Equipment

Vargas, together with the technicians Santo Domingo Henriquez, Jose Amaro Perez, Javier Garcia and Eduardo Evertz, said that the owners of radios stations are purchasing equipment to install digital signals. He referred to the fact that nearly all of the channels are now ready to start broadcasting with digital technology. He mentioned that the European technicians went over at least two channels and realized that the country has been long prepared to make the switch. He said that the consumers are ready due to the fact that this is one of the countries with conscientiousness regarding communications. He said that there are 1.3 million television sets in the DR.