Italy finally ends interference-causing broadcasts

Italy has informed the International Telecommunications Union that it has ceased transmitting TV programmes on 61 frequencies that have been causing problems with interference in neighbouring countries.

The ITU Radiocommunication Bureau received a complaint from the Slovenian government in 2005 about interference resulting from Italian broadcasts, with other countries joining the chorus of complaint from 2011.

The issue was later raised at ITU’s World Radiocommunication Conferences of 2012 and 2015 and to the European Union Radio Spectrum Policy Group from 2012, with what the ITU described as “slow progress” being made until 2014.

From 2014, however, under the newly elected government of Matteo Renzi, Italy’s sub-secretary of state Antonello Giacomelli, in charge of telecommunications, initiated legislative, regulatory and financial measures to ensure that the use of frequencies by Italian broadcasters was brought in line with the ITU’s Radio Regulations and the ITU Regional Agreement signed in Geneva in 2006, which provides the international framework for terrestrial television broadcasting in the region.