[cr-india] The rejection of digital radio in Sweden: implications for India?

Tue Mar 8 23:15:55 CST 2016

Ram, I think that you and I are among a very small handful of people in India who have hands-on experience of FM broadcasting, free-to air casting on a very low scale, using the FM band. 
Despite this very real experience of broadcasting on a regular basis to a very small audience, constituting the major part of a real rural village/town, no actual social research has actually been done to measure its efficacy. However, the real footprint, which covered most of the original area of the village (a relatively new extension could not be reached in that very low cost pilot), was an indication of the incredible efficiency of incredibly low power, which was approximately 100mW at the Tx terminal. Just to remind the list, the station, set up not far from the geographical centre of India's land mass, was shut down on the grounds that it presented a border security threat. 
An inescapable conclusion is that we really don't need, from a technological standpoint, to inefficiently throttle the airwaves across India with 100W transmitters - except in areas near cities, where the ministry has, without consideration of the possible impact of emf on human physiological systems, allowed multiple 10kW Tx (and, I understand, even larger) operated by both private and state owned entities, in areas of extremely dense populations. One poor decision leading to a second. 
Just as Sweden is a sensible example to take into account on the subject of digital/analogue choices, so should we heed the example of the USA, where the FCC ruled years back in favour of low power versus high power. Even there, sub 5W, but a worthy example, in my opinion. 
Incidentally, the choice of high power and low power has very little bearing on the choice of analogue and digital, but it is not even on the table in the discussion, which is plain ridiculous. At some point, surely social engineers (an umbrella term I am using to describe anyone with a stake in mass communication) should take note of physical engineering, and, indeed physics itself.
I dispute your assessment, therefore, that the decision is being left to engineers. In fact, it seems very clear to me that the one sector not in the discussion is engineering. 

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  On Tue, 8 Mar, 2016 at 7:17 pm, Ram Bhat<ramnathbhat.13 at gmail.com> wrote:   Dear Vinod,
Thanks for this. Although Indian digitalisation is confined to AIR (for now) it will have indirect and negative consequences for others on FM band. We should have started worrying a few years ago. I think Sub-Group of Planning Commission came out with first report on this topic as far back as 2006-07. I have written on these issues a couple of years ago but the issue hasn't had public purchase. It's perceived as a purely technical issue best left to engineers.
Spectrum scarcity is a myth in national context. There is scarcity only in A+ markets. In the rest of the country, it is the exact opposite. Even AIR's FM footprint is about 40%. Community radio will soon have good numbers but low footprint because of low power transmission. Commercial FM is structurally confined to urban or semi urban areas. 
Lobbying for digitalisation has been intensifying globally, and India as a large market is particularly attractive. People are enamoured of all the bells and whistles around digitalisation. A clear-headed look at the political economy of digitalisation is much needed. 
Examples like Sweden are extremely useful in building evidence against digitalisation. Would be great if you could invite a couple of people from Sweden to come and help us with advocacy here. 
Best,Ram

On Tue, 8 Mar 2016, 18:05 Vinod Pavarala, <vpavarala at gmail.com> wrote:

 via mail from Gunnar Bergvall, Chairman, Public Service Council, Sweden"In December 2014 a Digital Radio Coordinator assigned by the government presented a roadmap on how to digitize terrestrial radio in Sweden.  It was proposed that a transition from FM to DAB+ should be implemented in the 2016-2024 period.  In June 2015, after an extensive consultation process, the government rejected the proposal after an overall negative response by relevant authorities, academics and organizations. Adding to this, the National Audit Office presented a critical report on the proposal. The case was formally closed by an unanimous Parliament decision February 3, 2016 confirming the government assessment of the National Audit report.  The attached memorandum from the Public Service Council of Sweden gives the full story."
Some of the key points, without reproducing the technical detail, are:
1. Ten million FM receivers must be scrapped and consumers will be forced to replace those with new DAB+ compatible receivers.2. The Total Defense system and Emergency Alert system will be put at risk.3. Lack of coverage.  Digital radio may not reach the whole country.4. No consensus between the two commercial network companies how to allot broadcast permits.5. Public demand highly unclear.6. FM is still the world standard for terrestrial broadcast radio in more than 200 countries.7. There are estimated 6 billion FM receivers in the world vs. 40 million DAB receivers. There are 44,000 terrestrial radio stations; most are FM and few are DAB.8. The FM band is not ”full”. In Sweden there are approximately 200 vacant frequencies for new FM channels. Still more channels can be released by a re-‐planning procedure. 9. No significant consumer demand in any country. No comprehensive market research reports or analyzes have been published anywhere. No consumer complaints regarding FM radio performance have been recorded.10. Few countries have presented a specific plan for an eventual FM switch-‐off and Norway is so far the only country in the world with a set switch-‐off date.11. An FM switch-‐off has been strongly opposed by community and local radio associations in Norway and Sweden. The retention of FM radio for small-‐scale broadcasting has been strongly endorsed by the two European organizations for community radio; AMARC Europe and Community Media Forum Europe as well as The Association of European Radios (AER).
More details can be found in the memorandum attached.
In India, as some of you may know, the standard being preferred by the government is DRM (Digital Radio Mondiale), and not DAB.  About 27 MW-AM transmitters have been installed for AIR across the country, making it, in the words of DRM India, "the world's largest digital radio deployment." Prasar Bharati says this on its website about the plan for migration to digital radio in the country as a whole: "A study group called "sub- group on going Digital"was set up by planning commission to study the digitaization of broadcast industry. The sub-group was headed by the Member Secretary, Planning Commission. The sub-group has laid down the migration path from analog transmission to digital domain. Year 2017 has been given the target for complete switch over to digital mode."
But, the all important question for us, community radio practitioners/activists/advocates in India is: what are the implications of this plan for community radio in India? Do we need to start worrying and prepare for a systematic response?
best,Vinod-- 
Prof. Vinod Pavarala
Head, Department of Communication &
UNESCO Chair on Community Media
Sarojini Naidu School of Arts & Communication 
University of Hyderabad
Gachibowli, Hyderabad 500046
Phone: +91-40-23135501/23011553
http://www.commuoh.in/http://www.uccommedia.in/
http://www.communityradioindia.org/

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