The consolidation of national plans to implement the digital transition in the African region is in accordance with the deadlines of June 2015 (for decimetric waves) and June 2020 (for metric waves in 33 countries) established in 2006 by the ITU Regional Radiocommunication Conference (RRC-06), which adopted the GE06 TV plan.
With this landmark decision, Africa is the first region that, starting in 2015, will be able to allocate bandwidth freed up by the transition to digital television, the so-called 'digital dividend', to the mobile service in the 700 MHz and 800 MHz bands. The decisions of the 2012 World Radiocommunication Conference (WRC-12) to facilitate the availability of the digital dividend for the mobile service will take effect, with some technical refinements, immediately after the next World Radiocommunication Conference in 2015 (WRC-15).
Dr. Hamadoun I. Touré, Secretary-General of the ITU, acknowledged the high level of cooperation shown during the process by the African Telecommunication Union (ATU) and its Secretary-General, Mr. Abdoulkarim Soumaila.
Mr. François Rancy, Director of the ITU Radiocommunication Bureau, announced that sub-Saharan African countries have begun submitting official amendments to the GE06 plan following the final frequency coordination meeting held in Nairobi from 17 to 19 July 2013 and the August 31 deadline for notifications.
“The objective was for African countries to be able to allocate the digital dividend to mobile services in the 694-862 MHz band, in a harmonized regional implementation of the decisions adopted by the 2012 World Radiocommunication Conference,” stated Mr. Rancy. “This objective has been achieved by replanning the spectrum requirements for television broadcasting in the 470-694 MHz frequency band.”
The Nairobi meeting, jointly organized by the ITU and the African Telecommunication Union (ATU) and hosted by the Communications Commission of Kenya (CCK), attracted 124 participants from 35 Member States. It was the third and final global coordination meeting of African countries, following similar meetings in Bamako (March 2011) and Kampala (April 2011), and several other bilateral and multilateral meetings held in 2011 and 2012.
Equinix selects Infinera Cloud Xpress for data center interconnection in Hong Kong
Infinera announces that Equinix has selected Infinera Cloud Xpress to interconnect its data centers in Hong Kong. Infinera Cloud Xpress offers Equinix a platform with hyperscale density, operational simplicity, and low power consumption.
