Mexico. The digitization of television will allow greater programming, better image quality, greater sound fidelity and more channels with high definition, which will open the way to a greater offer in broadcasting, agreed the Undersecretariat of Communications of the Secretariat of Communications and Transport (SCT), Mónica Aspe Bernal and the president of the Federal Institute of Telecommunications, Gabriel Contreras Saldivar.
The officials reported that a level of penetration of receivers suitable for receiving digital transmissions has already been reached in more than 90 percent of low-income households defined by the Ministry of Social Development (SEDESOL), and that there are already digital signals in the coverage area of Monterrey and Sabinas Hidalgo, Nuevo León, therefore, the IFT determined the cessation of analog television signals on September 24 in them.
Aspe Bernal announced that the SCT has provided almost 172 thousand equipment, and specifically in the metropolitan area of Monterrey almost 110 thousand. This process began in May 2014 in the municipality of Anáhuac, and in the rest of the state it was carried out between the end of November 2014 and February of this year.
The official added that the delivery of equipment to low-income families is progressing at an adequate pace and without incident throughout the national territory. It has worked as a general rule in peace and correctly, with a very complex logistics, to comply with the fifth transitory article of the Constitutional Reform in Telecommunications and with the nineteenth transitory article of the Federal Law on Telecommunications and Broadcasting, he reiterated.
"5.8 million televisions have been acquired, of which we have delivered 5.2 million in 26 states. There is also a tender in process for 3.6 million additional equipment that is being carried out by the SCT Chief Officer's Office and in the coming days it will give the ruling," he explained.
For his part, Contreras Saldívar explained that the Plenary of the Institute determined that on September 24 all the signals of that coverage area will be transmitting only in digital signal. He said that to maintain the television service, the population must have a digital television or a decoder that converts the analog signal into digital.
Both officials held separate meetings with the constitutional governor of Nuevo León, Rodrigo Medina de la Cruz, and the governor-elect, Jaime Heliodoro Rodríguez Calderón, to inform them about the progress of the DTT transition program and the decision of the IFT plenary to turn off analog signals in Monterrey and Sabinas Hidalgo.
Aspe Bernal commented that people who have received a notification from SEDESOL, as beneficiaries who have the right to receive this equipment and who have not been able to collect it on the established day and date, may go to a special attention module that will be installed in the offices of the SCT Center, located in Monterrey to be delivered to them, he said.
