Paris - Sep 17, 2012 - The French government has decided not to ask the CSA for priority allocation of frequencies for potential DAB broadcasts of Radio France and Radio France International in the areas of Paris, Marseille and Nice. They are, however, reserving the right to do so in the future. The reason given is that the cost to build the infrastructure is large.

That reason notwithstanding, the French government is not satisfied with the amount of penetration of radio throughout the entire country. Even though Paris is covered by more than 50 radio stations, more than one third of the country is served by less than 12 FM stations. The government realizes that DAB has the potential to mitigate this problem, and is still considering its implementation in the future.

The French government will also soon make an order to authorize the DAB+ standard, which can coexist well with the existing T-DMB standard.