> Otherwise stopping FM isn't much use.

I think the main motivation to shut down FM is that now that DAB is built-out sufficiently (or so they say), running both at the same time is expensive. FM transmitters are supposedly quite power hungry and expensive to operate.

It will take at least a decade or two to free up the FM band for other uses anyway. Norway will probably wait and use it in a way that aligns with the rest of the world, rather than finding its own local use for the spectrum.

Correct; FM is very power inefficient, particularly in Norway where one needs quite literally thousands of repeaters to provide coverage to every nook and cranny where someone saw fit to settle down... :)

Also, only the national broadcasters vacate the FM network; local radio stations are free to keep using FM for the foreseeable future.

DAB was significantly worse powerwise compared to FM transmission. DAB+ has rectified some of the issues, but it remains to see if it actually better.

>It will take at least a decade or two to free up the FM band for other uses anyway. Norway will probably wait and use it in a way that aligns with the rest of the world, rather than finding its own local use for the spectrum.

And that's the difference between an entrepreneurial, capitalist minded society and a socialist minded one.

It's not clear that there are any good alternative uses for the FM spectrum.

The UK plan is to move the national stations to DAB and use the old FM bandwidth for community and local radio.

My personal expectation is that the FM spectrum will be taken over by pirate stations.

It will be immediately used with for long-distance Wireless Internet.

Testing has already started.

OK, where are they testing it?