The Government of Norway announces
[April 16], the Ministry of Culture announced a national FM-switch off, to complete the transition to digital radio. Norway is making [a] historical move into a new radio era, being the first country in the world to decide upon an analogue switch-off for all major radio channels. With DAB (Digital Audio Broadcasting) and digital radio, listeners will be provided with more radio channels and greater diversity in content.
[...]The DAB-coverage in Norway now exceeds FM-coverage. DAB provides Norway with 22 national channels, as opposed to five channels transmitting nationwide on FM.
[...]Switch-off starts in Nordland county 11th January 2017 and ends with the northernmost counties Troms and Finnmark [13th December] 2017.
Official announcement in Norwegian. Also covered at Ars Technica.
(Score: 2) by frojack on Tuesday April 21 2015, @09:45PM
The other (related) problem satellite has is their window has already passed. I can't find a place where I can't stream on my phone
That's funny, because the only place I have sat radio is in my car precisely because of the long gaps in cell coverage in the Western US. There are parts of Oregon, Washington, Utah, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico and Arizona where data is not available, or drops down to GPRS speeds.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 2) by VLM on Tuesday April 21 2015, @09:58PM
Hmm good point I bet tunnels are interesting too. The stuff I listen to is downloaded, usually over wifi when the phones on a charger, so I don't care much, but some folks like to stream or like live sports or live shows. So that is a good point.
Still eventually, theoretically the whole world's gonna get wired up, every square foot, and its cheaper to plop a tower down in the desert than to launch a satellite.
From a purely financial standpoint those satellites aren't going to last forever and investors would be pretty crazy to launch another...