London DAB Trial

U.DAB’s 2015 application for an ofcom small-scale DAB multiplex licence in London was successful. Trial London has broadcast continuously 24-7 since October 2015, including in January 2018 the addition of a third transmitter to complement our original two, increasing the strength and reliability of reception in heavily built-up Central London. The reliability and quality of our transmissions speaks for itself with uptime over the entire 7.5-year period in excess of 99.8%. We are the only licensee to have invested in an additional transmission site to improve the robustness of our DAB coverage during the SSDAB Trial.

U.DAB currently carries twenty five London broadcasters to make their stations available on DAB Digital Radio (see ‘Broadcasters‘ page for details).

The eventual closing of Trial London is now foreseeable. On 30th March 2023, ofcom advertised full-time small-scale DAB licences for five areas of Greater London in a competitve tender process. Our Central London Trial licence will expire when the new licence for North London switches on (… from mid 2024 at the earliest, more likely 2025).

Further information on ‘Small Scale DAB’ is available from the ofcom website here.

U.DAB will bid for the ‘North London’ full-time licence (see Full-time Futurepage).

It is unlikely that there will be any further spare capacity on our Trial DAB multiplex. However if your station is interested and based in North London, please feel free to contact us. (see Contact‘ page).