Mexico. With the aim of a definitive transition to digital technology, the Mexican government plans to start the analog blackout of open television in 2012, according to the Federal Telecommunications Commission (Cofetel) the migration could conclude in 2021.
Cofetel will carry out this plan despite the fact that the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation (SCJN) suspended the presidential decree by which the adoption of digital television was accelerated. According to Fernando Borjón, director of the Radio and Television Unit of Cofetel, "a gradual digital transition scheme would not violate the suspension issued by the SCJN against the decree, which set in 2015 the date to carry out the analog blackout."
As for the modernization schedule, it will begin with the northern states; then in the cities of Monterrey, Matamoros and Mexicali, to move in 2014 to Mexico City and conclude in rural areas in 2021, where satellite technologies can be used to cover remote areas, as was done in Brazil and Argentina.
Finally, the administrative agencies agree that Mexico's main challenge is not to solve when analog transmissions will end, but how to increase the insertion of equipment to capture digital signals.
