Digital switchover will make it possible to develop new broadband and broadcasting services in the future

The government approved the Digital Dividend Plan developed by the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communications, i.e. the plan for making use of the radio frequencies which will be freed up with digital switchover. The frequencies freed up will make it possible to develop both new mobile broadband services and broadcasting services.

Transition from analogue to digital television in Estonia on 1 July 2010 will make available the spectrum resources called the digital dividend. This will make it possible to provide a broader choice of services in the frequency spectrum that is currently used only for broadcasting. While analogue broadcasting allows the transmission of only one channel in the frequency band of a TV channel, digital technology will make it possible to transmit up to ten times more.

According to the Digital Dividend Plan, the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communications will organise a public competition for the use of the radio frequencies freed up in the 790 – 862 megahertz (MHz) frequency band. This frequency range is currently used by AS Levira. For the organisation of the public competition, the frequency range 790 – 862 MHz will first be freed up by allocating  to AS Levira the necessary frequency resources in the range of 470–790 MHz.

After that it will be possible to organise the public competition for which no restrictions with respect to technology or content will be set but there will be technical restrictions to protect the radio frequency use of neighbouring countries on the basis of international agreements.
Thus entrepreneurs providing both broadband and broadcasting services can participate in the competition.