| THE PRIME MINISTER --------- | SOCIALIST REPUBLIC OF VIET NAM Independence - Freedom - Happiness -------------- |
| No. 22/2009/QD-TTg | Hanoi, February 16, 2009 |
DECISION
APPROVING THE UP-TO-2020 PLANNING FOR RADIO AND TELEVISION WAVE TRANSMISSION AND BROADCASTING
THE PRIME MINISTER
Pursuant to the December 25, 2001 Law on Organization of the Government;
Pursuant to the May 25, 2002 Ordinance on Post and Telecommunications;
Pursuant to the Government's Decree No. 160/2004/ND-CP of September 3, 2004, detailing the implementation of a number of articles of the Ordinance on Post and Telecommunications, regarding telecommunications;
Pursuant to the Government's Decree No. 187/2007/ND-CP of December 25, 2007, defining the functions, tasks, powers and organizational structure of the Ministry of Information and Communication;
Pursuant to the Prime Ministers Decision No. 219/2005/QD-TTg of September 9, 2005, approving the strategy on information development till 2010;
At the proposal of the Minister of Information and Communication,
DECIDES:
Article 1. To approve the up-to-2020 planning on radio and television wave transmission and broadcasting with the following principal contents:
I. OBJECTIVES
1. To expand domestic and international radio and television wave coverage, especially programs of the Radio Voice of Vietnam and Vietnam Television Station, aiming to property serve the political, external, defense and security tasks of the Party and the State (below collectively referred to as political tasks) and provide the vast majority of people at home and Vietnamese communities overseas with diverse, rich and high-quality radio and television services, suitable to the demand and income of every one.
2. To develop wave transmission and broadcasting infrastructures which are synchronous, modern, efficient and uniform in standards and technology, able to carry radio, television, telecommunications and information technology services on the same technical infrastructure, meeting the technological and service convergence requirements.
3. To step up the change of wave transmission and broadcasting infrastructure from analog technology to digital technology, aiming to raise service quality, increase the number of program channels, diversify service types and raise the frequency resource-using efficiency.
4. To step by step create and develop a wave transmission and broadcasting market based on the participation of state enterprises or joint-stock companies in which the State holds dominant shares in order to attract resources for the development of radio and television wave technical infrastructure in service of socio-economic development, ensuring the State's unified and effective management.
II. DEVELOPMENT TARGETS
1. By 2010:
a/ The terrestrial television wave will cover 95% of the population;
b/ The AM-FM radio wave will cover 100% of the population, ensuring that almost all households can tune in frequency bands and listen to popular programs.
2. By 2015:
a/ The terrestrial television wave will cover 100% of the population, ensuring that almost all households can receive and watch popular television programs;
b/ The cable television networks will be deployed in 100% of the centers of provinces and centrally run cities.
3. By 2020:
a/ To step by step digitalize the terrestrial television wave transmission and broadcasting networks suitable to peopled practical conditions on digital television receivers in each specific area. Basically, the analog technology-based terrestrial television wave broadcasting will stop and be replaced by digital technology-based terrestrial television wave broadcasting when 95% of households can afford television sets capable of receiving popular television channels and programs by different modes of wave transmission and broadcasting;
b/ To stop using the cable television analog technology before 2020 for full shift to digital technology with 100% cable networks laid underground along main roads and streets in provincial and municipal centers;
c/ Digital technology will be widely applied to radio wave transmission and broadcasting;
d/ To satisfy the demands of most households in deep-lying, remote, mountainous regions and islands for being supplied with digital radio and television receivers at reasonable prices.
III. DEVELOPMENT ORIENTATIONS
1. Networks
a/ Terrestrial radio and television wave transmission and broadcasting networks
To realize the roadmap of digitalization of radio and television wave transmission and broadcasting in each period:
- From now to 2010:
To complete the development of analog wave transmission and broadcasting networks under approved plans. In addition, to permit the capacity adjustment for existing transmitters or invest in new transmitters of appropriate capacities with a view to achieving the set coverage targets while causing no interferences to other radio communications systems.
To formulate policies, measures and roadmaps for the shift to digital wave transmission and broadcasting; to make investment in digital wave transmission and broadcasting systems in an order based on the principle that highly developed areas struck with frequency scarcity will make the shift first and economically difficult areas later;
Radio and television stations, units and enterprises engaged in wave transmission and broadcasting activities shall coordinate in jointly using infrastructure facilities, including buildings, stations, electricity sources, cable tanks, especially antenna towers, in order to ensure efficient and convenient radio and television wave coverage so that people can receive and watch different program channels;
Local radio and television stations are encouraged to use digital wave transmission and broadcasting networks already established by units or enterprises in their respective localities so as to broadcast local programs to users.
- From 2010 to 2015:
Units and enterprises licensed to establish digital radio and television wave transmission and broadcasting network infrastructure shall continue to expand digital radio and television wave transmission and broadcasting coverage in urban, delta as well as densely populated areas while further investing in expanding digital wave coverage to rural and mountainous areas;
Units and enterprises licensed to establish networks and provide digital radio and television wave transmission and broadcasting services and local radio and television stations shall continue broadcasting in parallel digital and analog program channels in their geographical areas. Localities fully satisfying the prescribed conditions are encouraged to stop broadcasting analog television waves and completely shift to digital radio and television broadcasting on transmission and broadcasting infrastructures of the licensed units or enterprises;
For deep-lying, remote, mountainous and island regions and areas meeting with difficulties in building and developing terrestrial digital radio and television networks, schemes should be realized for use of radio and television programs via satellites in combination of relay transmitters of appropriate capacity in order to attain the coverage targets.
- From 2015 to 2020:
Units and enterprises licensed to establish digital radio and television wave transmission and broadcasting network infrastructure shall coordinate in investment and construction of terrestrial digital transmission and broadcasting systems in rural, deep-lying, remote, mountainous and island regions;
To incrementally stop analog radio and television broadcasting in areas which have fully met the conditions for shift to digital technology. In other areas, analog radio and television broadcasting continues to exist in parallel with digital radio and television broadcasting.
Local radio and television stations shall coordinate with units and enterprises licensed to establish networks and provide digital radio and television wave transmission and broadcasting services in their areas in step by step transmitting all radio and television program channels on digital wave transmission and broadcasting infrastructure;
To executive projects on production and supply of low-price digital television receivers to households. To limit and proceed to indefinitely cease the import and investment in production of analog transmitters;
To basically terminate terrestrial radio and television wave transmission and broadcasting based on analog technology before 2020. To encourage the complete shift of radio and television wave transmission and broadcasting from analog technology to digital technology before 2020.
- Planning on frequency bands for terrestrial radio and television broadcasting systems:
+ MF band (526.25-1.606.5 KHz): AM radio broadcasting, digital radio broadcasting;
+ VHF band I (54-68 MHz): small-scale FM radio broadcasting, digital radio broadcasting;
+ VHF band II (87-108 MHz): FM radio broadcasting, digital radio broadcasting;
+ VHF band III (174-230 MHz): analog television broadcasting, digital television and radio broadcasting;
+ UHF band (470-806 MHz): analog and digital technology-based terrestrial television broadcasting. According to the digitalization roadmap, part of this frequency band will be transferred to other radio information operations;
+ L frequency band (1,452-1,492 MHz): Based on the practical conditions, this frequency band can be studied for distribution to digital radio broadcasting.
b/ Cable radio and television wave transmission and broadcasting networks
- For wired cable radio and television:
The cable radio and television networks will be developed towards increased use of optical fiber cable and higher underground cable rate in order to ensure service quality and urban beauty, especially along main roads and streets in the heart of big cities;
The cable radio and television networks are capable of transmitting radio, television, telecommunications and Internet signals on a unified infrastructure, according to the trend of technological and service convergence.
- For MMDS television:
To immediately stop investing in the development of MMDS subscriptions on 2.5-2.69 GHz frequency band, then proceed to completely terminate the use of MMDS systems on this frequency band before 2010, which will be used for mobile services and wide-band radio access under the Resolution of International Telecommunications Union (ITU) and the national radio frequency distribution plan approved by the Prime Minister;
Organizations, radio and television stations that are exploiting the MMDS system on the 2.5-2.69 GHz frequency band shall work out plans for use of other substitute modes by their customers.
c/ Satellite radio and television wave transmission and broadcasting networks
- To combine the radio and television wave transmission and broadcasting via satellites with relay stations of appropriate capacities and use, of digital receivers to transmit radio and television broadcasts to wave-dead regions, especially deep-lying, remote, mountainous and island areas;
- To prioritize the development of satellite radio and television wave transmission and broadcasting networks in deep-lying, remote, border and island regions on Ku frequency band in order to provide radio and television services (DTH) to subscribers with small, compact and convenient end-receivers; to combine C and Ku frequency bands for program exchanges between radio or television stations;
- To combine the use of Vietnamese satellite (Vinasat) and other regional and international satellite systems for radio and television coverage in service of foreign news services.
d/ Radio and television wave transmission and broadcasting via mobile networks and Internet
To boost the development of radio and television wave transmission and broadcasting via mobile networks and Internet in order to satisfy the information and entertainment demands of a majority of telecommunications subscribers and at the same time serve the foreign news services, especially for Vietnamese communities overseas.
