Car manufacturers are making progress in ensuring all car radios are digital as standard by 2015. As part of the government’s Digital Britain report last year, it was confirmed that the analogue radio signal would be switched off by 2015. The take up of digital radio in cars has so far been slow, but Digital Britain is speeding up the development of the in-car technology.
Anthony Sethill, chief executive of the UK’s leading DAB component supplier Frontier Silicon, said, “Digitial radio is here to stay now. There have been some false starts in the industry in the past but Digital Britain is ensuring that it will be rolled out as standard in all new models from 2013.”
Sethill also said France’s decision to switch off analogue radio from 2013 was a factor in speeding up development.
The switch-off of analogue radio in Britain will begin in 2013, and the government plans to have completed the switch-over by 2015, although Sethill believes 2017 is a more realistic completion date.
