Mexico. The Radio Spectrum Unit, EBU, of the Federal Institute of Telecommunications, IFT, presented the Study of Continuity of Sound Broadcasting Services in Amplitude Modulation (AM), which updates the similar exercise carried out in 2018.
This version incorporates to the analysis the new concessions of sound broadcasting services in Amplitude Modulation (AM) and Frequency Modulation (FM), granted by the IFT as part of the Annual Programs for the Use and Exploitation of Frequency Bands (PABF), the results of the Population and Housing Census of the National Institute of Statistics and Geography (INEGI) 2020, as well as the technical information regarding the sound broadcasting infrastructure published on the IFT portal as of October 2022; which as a whole, influences the conditions of continuity of the service with respect to those analyzed 4 years ago.
The results of the study include the analysis of continuity of service for a total of 53 AM radio stations that have the obligation to maintain transmissions, since in the coverage of these stations there are localities that only receive AM service.
From the analyses carried out, it was identified that only one of the 53 AM stations subject to continue with their transmissions, presents 100% continuity of service, derived from which it ceased operations once the period of one year from the beginning of operations of the FM station has elapsed, so that the spectrum of the AM station has been reverted to the Nation.
It is important to remember that service continuity studies apply to those AM concessions that obtained the change of frequency to FM under the AM to FM Migration Agreement of 2008 or the Change Guidelines from AM to FM of 2016; in which it was established that the concessionaires that were subject to said instruments, should maintain the simultaneous operation of the AM and FM stations -transmitting the same programmatic content- for one year, after which the operations of the AM station should cease, provided that in the localities contained within the service area of the AM station the continuity of the sound broadcasting service through the FM station product of the migration, or of other stations that provide the sound broadcasting service.
Otherwise, if, as a result of the cessation of operations of the AM station, any locality contained within its service area is left without access to the sound broadcasting service in any of its modalities, the AM station should continue in operation until the competent authority determines what is appropriate.
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