The story of digital TV switchover - Telegraph.co.uk

Even more surprising, perhaps, is that the whole, £630million process, as finally begun in earnest in 2009, is now on time and under budget. When it is over, the government-backed scheme will result in nearly all of the country receiving more than 40 extra digital channels, including BBC Three, BBC Four and additional services from ITV and Channel 4. More people will also be able to receive high-definition channels.

And while millions have had to retune set-top boxes and digital televisions, relatively few have been forced to buy new equipment. A scheme set up to help pensioners and those on benefits has not seen the take up expected as more people upgraded as part of the natural cycle of things, rather than because they had to. John Lewis said sales of set-top boxes and TVs were up 100 per cent when the Meridian region switched, while London is currently up 80 per cent too.

John Kempner, who has been the buyer for vision at John Lewis for 18 years, says the process has coincided with huge technological improvements in television. "The first 42inch flat panel TV we sold was £12,500 and you can now get a 42 inch TV for less than £400".

And finally, when the signal has been switched off comes the so-called 'digital dividend'. The Government will sell off the redundant spectrum, netting up to £5billion, as mobile operators bid to provide the UK with the next generation of networks that will provide phones with internet speeds as fast as broadband. It will stimulate the more widespread adoption of new technologies, such as 'connected TV' offering the BBC iPlayer on demand and tablets that use such new data services to provide a companion screen for big sporting and TV events. O2, Everything Everywhere, owners of T-Mobile and Orange, and BT are already conducting trials that have allowed broadband to get to rural areas that previously had to make do without.

Huge as the project has been, however, no date has yet been set for the far bigger task of switching radio signals from analogue to digital. Despite previous government ambitions to finish the process by 2015, it will be a brave minister who demands that nearly every UK driver changes their car radio.