Band III

VHF Band III is the broadcasting band that ranges from 174 - 230 MHz in Europe and Asia and from 174-216 MHz in the Americas. This band is used mainly for analog television and digital broadcasting (both digital television and digital radio). The band is not used exclusively for broadcasting. The band is also used for land mobile services and some other services in a number of countries.

In Europe, this band is used for the introduction of digital broadcasting. The planning of the band for digital broadcasting is established by the Regional Radio Conference 2006 (RRC-06, Geneva). After analogue switchover, the band will be based on a fixed channel arrangment of 7 MHz bandwith (channel 5-12) for digital television (DVB-T). A channel can be split in 4 channels (sub-channels A-D) of 1.75 MHz bandwidth for digital radio (DAB).

Channel raster for band III

The plan provides each country with a similar amount of fully coordinated spectrum, as far as possible on the basis of allotments. Allotments can be combined to provide layers of national coverage. The average share of each country is about 1 national digital television layer and 3 national digital radio layers. This amount can be reduced for countries which also use band III for services other than broadcasting.