The deployment of digital terrestrial television in Ireland has taken some time, with the first small tests being carried out in 1998. 2002 saw the cancellation and non-award of the DTT commercial licence and transmission network sale. In August 2006, a major regional DTT trial began in conjunction with major television channels in Ireland including Raidió Teilifís Éireann, TV3, TG4 and the now-defunct Channel 6. By 2008 the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland announced that three groups had come together with proposals to manage commercial DTT in Ireland. Historical testing DVB-T was repeatedly tested from RTÉ Network Limited's Three Rock Mountain transmitter, with relatively long tests in 1998 and 2001, and shorter tests in 2004, with a single multiplex carrying the four Irish analogue terrestrial channels, and Tara Television while it was in existence, on both UHF (channel 26) and VHF (channel D). These were under temporary licences for testing, which are regularly awarded. A contract to run a nationwide system, with six multiplexes from main sites and four from relay sites, was awarded in 2001 to ITS Digital Limited, trading as "It's TV" and led by former RTÉ executive Peter Branagan, who intended to launch a pay TV and broadband service. ITS wanted to offer broadband internet access using the DVB-RCT standard (which, while providing 30 Mbit/s, did not provide sufficient reverse link capacity for 20,000 people on one mast). ITS did not have a broadband licence and no viable business plan without selling broadband, and due to lack of funding withdrew its application in October 2002. The government also planned to privatise RTÉ's transmission network at this time but this too failed in October 2002 following the withdrawal of ITS Digital Limited DTT licence application and a number of other factors. National digital terrestrial plan Ireland currently uses the DVB-T standard with MPEG-4 compression. MHEG-5 is also used for epg and interactive services. The Broadcasting (Amendment) Act 2007 assigned one multiplex to RTÉ to ensure the continued availability of the four former free-to-air services in Ireland – that is, RTÉ 1, RTÉ 2, TG4 and TV3. RTÉ then established and now runs this DTT multiplex independently of BAI-licensed multiplexes in fulfilment of its public-service obligations. Under the 2007 Act, the BAI is required to license commercial DTT in the State. In the first instance, the BAI sought to license three DTT multiplex operators for the establishment, maintenance and roll-out