- Source: Limeux transmitting station
The Limeux transmitting station (50°00′44″N 1°49′49″E) (mast 1) and (50°00′44″N 1°50′01″E) (mast 2) is a facility for FM radio and television and mobile phone transmissions located near Abbeville, Somme, France. It has a 203-metre (666 ft) tall guyed mast for FM radio and analogue and digital television services.
It is the tallest built structure in the Somme.
The building of a second Mast
As in most countries, TV Broadcast was a state monopoly in France. As a consequence, when the market opened to competitors, the historic operator TDF had the advantage of already having all the requested infrastructures. By Law, it was decided to permit access of the existing infrastructures to the competitors, paying a rent to the historic operator. The Operator Itas Tim found it more profitable to build its own mast and not paying the rent, thus a second mast was built at the end of 2015. Itas tim switched over its own muxes to the new mast on February, 2nd 2016. But in the end TDF bought the operator Itas Tim at the end 2016.
Analogue services (Mast 1)
Digital switchover planned date on Abbeville-Limeux TV mast : February 1, 2011.
Digital services
Frequencies from May, 14th 2019
Originally, all the multiplexes were transmitted from Mast 1. Itas tim's multiplexes were transferred to the new mast in early 2016.
Extra compression made it possible to delete mux 5 and then to sell the frequencies over 700 MHz to mobile phone operators.
References
(in English) Télévision Numérique Terrestre
(in English) http://skyscraperpage.com/cities/?buildingID=75277 Mast Structure
(in English) http://www.mds975.co.uk/masts/limeux.html Archived 2010-11-27 at the Wayback Machine Mast photos
(in French) Émetteur de Limeux (article from which the data come from)