Havana - The 5th Digital Television Forum ends today after several debates about new technologies and the ''analog blackout'' in Cuba.

According to the Deputy Minister of Communications, Ana Julia Marín, the transition could happen by the year 2023.

By then it is expected that the coverage of this technology in the country should be around 100 percent because at present the signal only covers 60 percent, she added.

The official said that the country is preparing a partial analog blackout to give continuity to the digital television program, which will be reinforced in the next five years.

The action will eliminate a single channel of the old spectrum and for that, an area with good reception and the most appropriate technological conditions will be chosen to measure the impact of the test, Marín explained.

A report from the Business Group of Information Technology and Communications (GEIC) broadcast at the Digital Television Forum, explained that the signal broadcasting entities are located in the main urban centers and therefore, the service is available for 70 percent of the Cuban population.

This coverage is possible thanks to 108 broadcasting entities installed since 2013 when the digitalization project began.

Of these entities, 98 emit the standard signal, and 10 do so in high definition, the GEIC added.

Until last September more than 1.5 million decoder boxes were sold to the population, as well as more than 230,000 hybrid TVs, capable of capturing the digital signal, the report added.