Broadband services for mobile phones and similar devices will impact on Freeview Digital TV from this October.
Most of us will just have to retune our Digital TV and Digital Recorder
(We’ll post some information on this nearer the time and will offer a re-tune service for those who need help)
Where viewers equipment include signal amplifiers of any kind, there may be the need for additional filtering to prevent interference as the new mobile data services are launched on some of the frequencies freed up by the demise of analogue TV.
The information on transmitter use and retuning has finally been made public and can be found here.
Before October, there will be public service information about retuning.
We will keep everyone posted on our website, blog, facebook and twitter pages
More about 4G
While most of us are just getting used to 3G which brings us data services such as internet and email on mobile phones and basic broadband in some ‘notspot’ areas via a ‘mobile dongle’, 4G is just around the corner. For more rural areas such as this, this may be a very long blind corner!
4G will bring broadband speeds of somewhere between 6-10MBps to mobile devices but is likely to be rolled out in highly populated areas and large cities first so as usual, out here in the sticks, we shouldn’t hold our breath to tightly but should at least be ready to retune our TV’s to make room for it.
Why the retune?
Money… In short… The government is auctioning off the rights to use certain frequencies that used to be used for analogue TV and they stand to make a hefty profit in the process.
There will be some ‘juggling’ of Digital TV broadcast frequencies to make final clear spaces for 4G and minimise interference to remaining TV services.
The government has put £18m to one side to assist those eligible for a free service call from a signal technician like myself. The service calls are yet to be confirmed but are expected to be around £50 plus a filter.
As we have more information, we’ll make it available to all…
Watch this space.