Visitors to the CAI Trade Show in June may have attended a seminar presented by OFCOM’s Head of Technical Regulation, Peter Madry. Peter had the awesome task of telling the aerial trade just how the UHF spectrum may get divided up to make room for uses other than that of TV and radio channels.
The unprecedented amount of spectrum that will be freed up in the switchover from analogue to digital terrestrial TV is known as the ‘Digital Dividend’. The arguments from those wanting a slice of the spectrum cake argue along the lines that a fair and well-balanced reallocation of the spectrum between the mobile broadband, broadcasting and ICT industries will see that we all reap economic benefits.
The Digital Dividend spectrum is located between 200 MHz and 1GHz. This spectrum band offers an excellent balance between what it can provide, the powers you need you use it and the coverage you can get.
For us in the aerial trade already occupying the frequency space, reallocation can pose a few problems – particularly if your business is using a pretty crowded spectrum to push around TV and radio channels on large networks. The problems not only extend on the channels you are using for services being grabbed – but the high powers of the new services trying to co-exist beside the stuff you are providing. Interference issues may become tedious and costly.
The CAI is going headlong into to some serious debate and argument over all this starting with some preliminary meetings with OFCOM and broadcasters. The hope is then to raise the argument to government level if necessary.
CAI members will be kept fully informed of developments through the website and news channels such as ‘Connect’ and ‘Feedback’.
