Don’t Canberra, Hobart & Darwin now have the full suite of ABC/SBS DAB+ stations on a permanent basis? As for the commercial & community stations in those markets, I reckon the commercial broadcasters will get 128kbps for each analogue station they have with region-wide community radio getting 64kbps each.
By my calculations that should leave 320kbps unused in Canberra, 512kbps unused in Hobart and 640kbps in Darwin. How the unused spectrum would be allocated is anyone’s guess.
Yes, I meant to write when will the commercial and community services start.
I would add some really high quality audio feeds. Perhaps donate it back into the mux for other stations to up the bitrate.
Yep.
There’s a flat 256kbps or 2/9ths allocation for community radio - regardless of station count.
Eligible stations as far as I see it are:
Canberra: CMS FM, 1WAY, ArtSound FM, 2XX FM and RPH. Presumably, CMS and RPH would have 32kbps each, leaving the music formats the full 64.
Hobart: 7RPH, Hobart FM, Edge Radio and Ultra 106.5 - an even 64kbps each split.
Darwin: Territory FM, 97 Seven and Radio Larrakia
To quickly outline this, via the regional planning report:
Once the standard access entitlements of the incumbent commercial broadcasters have been satisfied, the multiplex transmitter licensee may allocate any excess capacity in accordance with the legislation. In summary, the licensee must auction the capacity if demand exceeds supply. Relevantly, the incumbent commercial licensees may only access an additional 1/9th of multiplex capacity each, giving a total capacity cap of 2/9th per commercial radio broadcasting licence. Community broadcasters in the licence area are also able to bid for excess capacity entitlements. National broadcasters may also bid for excess capacity entitlements on a Category 2 multiplex.
The likely outcomes are therefore that an auction takes place in Canberra for access to the spectrum, though likely with little real competition - I would expect SCA/ARN to get their full 256kbps, and Capital to take the remaining 128.
In Hobart and Darwin it is more interesting - there is still spectrum left over once the commercial broadcasters are at their cap. In Darwin, it would even be possible to have this occur without an auction - as demand couldn’t exceed supply.
So for Darwin, there’s quite a strong disincentive for Grant to move away from the current trial - where they control everything - to a proper multiplex license where potentially Territory FM could have 196kbps+ to offer a variety of competing formats.
What report is this and to what category does this relate to?
In the metros with Cat 1 and Cat 3, the commercial licensees bidded for whatever they’d like to.
It’s in the ‘DAB+ Regional Planning Technical Report’ - accessible on the ACMA site here. The quote is from page 13 of that report.
Here’s a sheet outlining the auction results in the metro areas - the lots being passed in in Brisbane is a result of all the bidders reaching their 128kbps, and things like ARN getting their 64kbps in Sydney relatively cheaply once Triple M/2day reached their limits.
Annual Report for Digital Radio Joint Venture Companies - FY 2009-2010 - Attachment 8.pdf (116.9 KB)
(more of those annual reports - including one containing the spectrum auction rules, are on the ACCC website)
I suspect Edge Radio may not be eligible for Hobart DAB since it’s only licensed to serve Hobart South, not all of Hobart as with Hobart FM and Ultra.
Other metros, RA1 is what’s eligible.
That would then only be Ultra 106.5. Hobart FM is RA2, Edge Radio is RA3 and 7RPH is RA4.
Hopefully some logic prevails there - or at least Ultra using their allocation to carry the other community stations, even if they aren’t on there officially - like what has finally happened with Joy on the Melbourne multiplex.
I tested in car Brisbane DAB radio reception further down the Gold Coast today. It’s mostly good down to Mermaid Beach, but then drops like a stone, with only brief reappearances at the top of the Currumbin Creek Estuary Bridge, Palm Beach and Marine Pde Coolangatta
Could the anomaly of 2RPH which has a licence area that encompasses Newcastle and Wollongong have set a precedent, I wonder? 1RPH Canberra is in the same situation with a different and wider licence area to the other Canberra community stations.
Have purchased on of these second hand.
When it gets delivered I will let you know what my new “radio” is like.
I thought of getting one at Aldi last year but the old specs deterred me.
Yeah I have a real phone too the specs are too low. Second hand in the high 90 dollar range from green gadgets on eBay. Some pocket dab radios are 100 plus. Although most are in the 60 dollars range.
@laoma interested to know if the tuner works without a SIM card. Was off network with a different phone and needed to switch on coverage for the tuner to recognise what region.
Oh interesting! Hope it works 
nevermind a cheap Aldi SIM will do the job if needed.
Can’t see why it needs a SIM card for that
Probably only has a network assisted GPS and relies on the GPS to know which frequencies to scan for to make scanning quicker and save battery.
Did not need a sim card.
I forgot what slow charge is like and 16 GB of memory haha. But it’s nice to have a head phone jack, also a removable battery plus an FM radio which I missed since I messed my old lg v20 up. Definitely my HTC u11 will remain my primary phone.
But reception is good no issues but I live in a good area. It’s nice to control the volume by the controls on the earphones .
I wish I could get the 5 dollar sim from optus once off and use the data off the plan.
I will attach some screenshots later. One thing is I don’t hold out for the dab software app to get better. In a strange way even though this phone is “retro tech”. For a dab radio it’s really leading edge in a strange way but won’t move forward and improve. I doubt if any new phones will ever have a dab radio again.
Wait until places like Officeworks spit them out for 50c. The one that I go to had tones of them once!