Technology
GO's digital terrestrial TV covering 95 per cent of households
By MaltaMedia News
Oct 19, 2007 - 8:50:09 AM

GO has just completed a major upgrade project for its digital terrestrial television (DTTV) network with the result that coverage has been extended to cover 95% of households in Malta and Gozo and the quality of transmission has been improved. The investment for this project amounted to 2.3 million Euros. Moreover new channels will be added to the GO Plus line-up in the coming weeks.

This was announced by David Kay, Chief Executive Officer of GO, during the official launch of the new GO Plus TV headend in Maghtab.

The investment in this upgrade covered the new headend as well as new transmitting facilities at the Naxxar tower. The extended reach of GO’s DTTV is also underpinned by a number of repeaters around Malta and Gozo. GO Plus TV subscribers in Gozo have also benefited from upgraded reception after a repeater was recently installed at the multi-function telecommunications tower in Nadur. As a result of the project, apart from the improved coverage, GO can now better utilize its resources so that additional TV channels may be added to the channel line-up.

Mr Kay said: “Since February of this year, when we took over the DTTV operator, we have invested a lot in our TV infrastructure and content acquisition. On the network side, there has been a lot of work to improve coverage, and in certain areas it is possible to get the signal from an indoor antenna, making the service easily portable to another residence – and even a boat.”

“The TV upgrade further enhances GO’s reputation as the leading telecoms operator in the Maltese Islands. On the basis of this multi-million Euro investment, GO is reinforcing its position in the marketplace by ensuring that it has the newest technology backed up by its suppliers for years to come,” Mr Kay said.

“With a strategy of offering fixed line telephony, mobile telephony and broadband Internet, GO is geared to offer its clients a total telecoms solution. And now with its TV product, GO prides itself as being the first telecoms company in Malta with a quad-play offering, which translates in a range of value-for-money services for all of GO’s customers,” he said.

 Joseph Bugeja, Technical Director at GO said: "Following a lot of planning and coordination, everything just came into place in the second week of August when Portomaso transmission equipment was upgraded, the tower at Naxxar extended and new transmission equipment installed at the Naxxar radio station."

onsequently a new headend was built at the recently refurbished premises at our Maghtab earth station complex. The headend facility includes new signal reception services, a new encoding setup and a-state-of-the-art monitoring and control station.

"We now have state-of-the-art digital equipment to maximise bandwidth," explained Ing. Bugeja. "We are the second or third in the world to have such a new system, provided by Tandberg, which is future proof and ready-to-handle mobile TV and IPTV-broadcast-quality TV channels over Internet."

Mr Bugeja said GO is actively seeking to benefit from new frequencies for the launch in the near future of high-definition (HD) TV channels, which require three to five times more bandwidth than the current digital channels. Moreover, the company is still actively working on the IPTV project which would give more interactivity to the TV experience.

GO’s Chief Commercial Officer Keith Fearne said that GO Plus has launched an intensive plan of action and, in the coming weeks and months, will be enhancing its line up of channels with additional stations and programming for the benefit of its customers.

GO Plus is working on enhancing the TV viewer experience with a high-quality electronic programme guide (EPG). It is also experimenting with secondary languages on channels where this is available and transmitting radio stations to complement the TV package.