<story><title>Norway to switch off FM in 2017</title><url>http://radio.no/2015/04/norway-to-switch-off-fm-in-2017/</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>rplst8</author><text>Getting rid of these older analog radio technologies is short-sighted unless there is a real compelling and complete replacement already cheap and widely available.&lt;p&gt;FM (and AM) radio are great technologies.  Just because they are &amp;quot;old&amp;quot; doesn&amp;#x27;t mean there is something better.&lt;p&gt;In the US, Internet streaming (of existing stations), digital HD radio, and XM satellite rarely achieves a fidelity that equals FM (when the FM reception is clear).    All of them suffer from unpleasant distortion.  FM is not without it&amp;#x27;s warts, but the &amp;quot;errors&amp;quot; are less distracting IMO.  They also all suffer from binary operation.  They either work or they don&amp;#x27;t.  FM fails somewhat gracefully in that the signal just gets noisier the further from the source you are.</text></comment>
<story><title>Norway to switch off FM in 2017</title><url>http://radio.no/2015/04/norway-to-switch-off-fm-in-2017/</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>asgeirn</author><text>This switch-off is not without controversy:&lt;p&gt;- The initial requirement was for at least of 50% of radio listening to be DAB before January 1st, 2015.  This requirement was changed in 2011 to &amp;quot;digital listening&amp;quot;, including streaming radio over Internet and DVB-T in the statistic.  The actual percentage for listening over DAB is not published individually.&lt;p&gt;- 25% of new cars sold do not support DAB.  Cars in Norway have an average lifespan of 10.5 years.&lt;p&gt;- The majority of road tunnels do not support DAB, and will not support DAB before the FM network is switched off.&lt;p&gt;This last point means using radio to contact drivers in case of emergency won&amp;#x27;t be possible at all, because:&lt;p&gt;1. The 20% of cars using DAB will not be able to receive anything while inside the tunnel.&lt;p&gt;2. The 80% of cars not using DAB won&amp;#x27;t have their radio switched on, as there is no reception.</text></comment>