The municipalities of Arrecife, Tinajo, Tías and San Bartolomé already enjoy DTT and the coverage of digital television is one hundred percent. The same does not happen in Yaiza, where the signal reaches 91 percent; in Teguise, where the coverage is 98 percent; nor in Haría, a municipality where coverage amounts to 97 percent. This was stated by the director of the Canary Islands Agency for Research, Innovation and the Information Society (ACIISI) of the autonomous government, Juan Ruiz Alzola, who was in Lanzarote on Wednesday to assess the course of the change from the analog to digital system on the island.
According to him, most of the places that are experiencing problems with the signal also had difficulties doing so in analog. In the case of Yaiza, he referred to some problems in Uga that are being solved. To ensure that the residents of the town enjoy digital television, "the Government of the Canary Islands will give direct aid, financial aid to the City Council to solve the problem", said the director. The amount has not yet been set and it will be the City Council that must undertake the application process.
He also mentioned the difficulties involved in implementing DTT in the town of Yaiza, where "there are several shadow areas that lead to poor reception, as was the case with analog, but the collaboration between the city council and the government maintained in this regard" will put an end to them, Alzola said.
El Golfo and Femés are the other two locations that are experiencing problems. In the first of these, the solution to improve the quality of reception will involve satelliting the reception of the signal and in Femés the steps to follow to offer a good service to users still have to be assessed. With regard to the north of the island, the only place where an incident has been recorded is in the urban center of Haría, where seven homes have reception problems.
Digitization of local and island televisions
Local and island televisions will have to have adapted to the new broadcasting system before October 2011. To achieve this objective, a Coverage Advancement Plan is being carried out in order to "reach the broadcasting quotas before the stipulated time".