DAB+ is the same as the current DAB technology but with the AAC+ audio codec and Reed-Solomon (RS) error correction coding added "on top". AAC+ is three times as efficient as the MP2 codec that DAB uses, which means DAB+ can provide much higher audio quality and carry more stations. The stronger error correction coding makes reception quality far more robust.

This has left some of you concerned that your DAB radio will soon become obsolete.
Communications regulator Ofcom has no plans to allow broadcasters to adopt the new DAB+ standard in the UK at the moment, but this could change in the future.

It is unlikely that current DAB radio owners will be able to upgrade them to DAB+ It is thought that manufacturers are planning to bring out models in the futire that can be upgraded to receive DAB+ signals but we don't know when, or indeed if, this standard will be adopted at all in the UK. And if it was, it will be many, many years away.

There are millions of people in the UK that have a DAB radio so Ofcom will have to weigh up the advantages of phasing in a DAB+ system with the disadvantage of phasing out the current digital system.

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