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Norway is to become the first country in the world to turn off its FM frequency and switch over to Digital Audio Broadcasting (DAB) entirely by 2017. The announcement was made at the weekend by Norway's Minister of Culture.

The analogue FM broadcast in Germany will definitely not be able to meet the challenges ahead. Making radio future-proof therefore means making its provision a part of the hybrid approach combining terrestrial DAB+ broadcast with the mobile radio, especially its smartphone devices. These are the main messages of the Parliamentary State Secretary Dorothee Baer from the German Federal Ministry of Transport and Digital Infrastructure (BMVI) stated during an event organised by the Federal Ministry of Transport and Digital Infrastructure in Berlin on 16 April.

Per Morten Hoff in ICT Norway writes on Kampanje.com that to digitise the radio is "a very unwise decision." That this comes from "digitisation associated" ICT Norway is in itself a curiosity, and as usual Hoffs justifications based on factual errors and factors that are taken out of their original context.

The Government has concluded digitisation of radio in 2017. The Norweigan Government followed up the Storting's decision to digitise the radio sector, as the criteria for the technology shift has been fulfilled.

Each trial will allow new digital radio services to broadcast to a local area and will help explore how groups of radio stations can work together. The trials will also inform Ofcom's work on identifying suitable frequencies for broadcasting smaller digital stations and help understand how these services could be licensed.

Norway has become the first country in the world to announce a closure of FM for national broadcasters. Like the UK, Norway also had a number of criteria to hit to achieve before government would consider switching off. Here are Norway's criteria (from Gunnar Garfors's blog), and how the UK would compare.

It has been confirmed today that Norway will switch off FM radio in 2017, the first country in the world to shut off analogue for all major radio stations. The switchover will take place over a 12 month period starting in January 2017. Norway was the first country in the world to fully switchover to digital TV in 2009.

51 applications to run one of 10 local DAB multiplexes on a nine-month trial have been received by Ofcom.

And it is official. Norway will switch off FM in 2017, as the first country in the world. The government, represented by the Minister of Culture, announced today. That makes today a day of celebration for the broadcasters that have long been working with listeners, the government, retailers, the car industry and each other to achieve five demands set up by the government in 2011.

On 16 April, the Ministry of Culture announced a national FM-switch off, to complete the transition to digital radio. The switchover will begin in the North on 11 January 2017 and will be implemented region by region, concluding 13 December 2017.