The SAR - along with the mainland, Singapore, Australia, Canada and most European countries - either are testing the European digital audio broadcasting (DAB) system, called the Eureka 147, or are committed to future trials.
Only the United States and Japan are pursuing different technologies.
Why? For one, the Eureka is the most widely tested DAB system, and the only one in active use. In Britain, for example, more than 30 million people can receive digital radio broadcasts from the BBC.
Eureka also is the only system that meets the technical requirements set by global regulatory body, the International Telecommunications Union.
Eureka 147 can work in several frequency bands, but some international bodies are pushing the L Band spectrum, which so far is mostly empty, for use worldwide for Eureka 147 broadcasts.
Laboratory tests are underway in some European countries to broadcast video - as well as voice and music - to monitors that could be built into digital radios. The quality is far worse than television, however. But since it is digital, data also can be sent.
A DAB system being developed in the US is called In-Band-On-Channel, or IBOC, which uses the same frequency range as conventional AM and FM radio.
