08 October 2020

The Cape Verdean government gave the state-backed business company Cabo Verde Broadcast (CVB) the go-ahead to switch off all analogue terrestrial TV services from August, in a bid to kick-start 4G services.

This process is aimed at freeing up frequencies that can be used for 4G as the country works on upgrading and expanding LTE network services. There will also be a continuing transition from analogue to digital terrestrial TV (DTT), something that has been underway for some years in Cape Verde and other African nations.

In Cape Verde the analogue TV switch-off will free up a chunk of 800MHz 4G spectrum. However, Cape Verde’s incumbent mobile operators, CV Movel and Unitel T+, have already launched commercial 4G 1800MHz services.

The Cabo Verde Multisectorial Regulatory Agency of the Economy (ARME) handed commercial 4G LTE mobile licences to the two operators in late last year. It followed about three months of network trials that began in June 2019 on the island of Sal, the fifth most populous of the 10 islands.