Eric Besson, France’s secretary of state for the digital economy, has published the roadmap for analogue digital switchover. The aim is to have reached full ASO by the end of November 2011.
The first switch-off is scheduled for November 8, with a pilot switch off in city of Coulommiers, a town of 20,000 inhabitants south-east of Paris. The process will be completed on February 4, 2009. After that, a second pilot is planned in Q2 2009 in the community of Kaysersberg (Alsace). Using results from these two trials, the government hopes to plan a smooth transition to digital.
After these two trails switchovers, the national switch off will start on May 31, 2009 in the city of Cherbourg (more than 100,000 inhabitants). From the end of 2009, two regions, one in the west and other in eastern France, will begin.
In the west, it will take place in the regions of Brittany (3,103,000 inhabitants), Pays de Loire (3,455,000 inhabitants) and Basse Normandie (1,453,000 inhabitants). In the east, it will be in Alsace (1,829,000 inhabitants), Champagne-Ardennes (1,337,000 inhabitants), Lorraine (2,343,000 inhabitants) and Franche Comte (1,151,000 inhabitants).
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