The ITU Radio communication Assembly considering: a) that there is an increasing requirement worldwide for suitable means of broadcasting high-quality monophonic or stereophonic sound to vehicular, portable and fixed receivers; b) the limitations of the existing LF, MF and HF sound broadcasting services abilities to fulfil such requirements; c) that the present congestion in some countries on the utilization of the LF, MF and HF bands causes a high level of interference and limits the number of programmes which can be transmitted; d) that technical developments in source and channel coding, modulation and advanced digital signal processing, have demonstrated the technical feasibility and maturity of digital sound- broadcasting systems in other bands; e) that a large series of demonstrations and field trials in various parts of the world have confirmed the technical feasibility and economic viability from a system design point of view of digital sound broadcasting systems in other bands; f) that an advanced digital sound broadcasting system can provide better coverage and better spectrum and power efficiency as well as better performance in multipath environments than conventional analogue systems; g) that a digital broadcasting system can be designed which may be employed in both terrestrial and satellite applications using closely related emission signal parameters, thus allowing common elements in the receiver design; h) that sound broadcasting has always used similar modulation techniques, such as AM or FM and similar, if not identical, frequency bands throughout the world, leading to a receiver that could be used worldwide, for the benefit of the listener; j) that extensive sound broadcasting services, both public and private, which provide sound programmes to listeners, exist throughout the world.