MMDS vs traditional cable question

seamus.carey

Hi guys,

I'm working on a college project looking at MMDS and Cable in Ireland and had a few questions that I was hoping you could help me out with.

From my understanding (and it's limited), MMDS is a way for people in areas where cable has not been laid to receive multi-channels. You need a special antenna and a setup box that decodes the signal.

MMDS is available through Chorus and NTL...now UPC in places like Sligo and Roscommon.

What I don't know is what kind of MMDS services there are. Are they mostly analogue with a few channels and what kind of price is charged for this. Or are some of them digital with lots of channels (how many) and what price is charged? Is there any big difference between cable and MMDS from a consumer point of view (other than receiving them in different ways)

Any help would be much appreciated.

Séamus

watty

ex NTL areas totally digital using DVB-c, 100+ channels
ex Chorus areas mostly hybrid 11 ot 12 channels Analogue and 66 approx digital using DVB-t. Supposed to migrate 100% digital.

its 2.5GHz and was not meant to be allocated for TV. So in a few years UPC will lose it.

UPC I think looked at converting all of it to DVB-c

Analogue quality is mostly poor.

Some areas the digital quality is poor (freezing/pixelation) due to poor signal.

Chorus & NTL are long gone now. UPC bought them both.

There is also SCTV MMDS on 11.7GHz to 12.5GHz using DVB-S system.

Broadband and phone that is rolling out on the cable is not currently possible on MMDS (Long ago Chorus had Powernet Broadband via separate MMDS style dish and a separate wireless phone system they lost licence)

FTA Satellite pretty much removes the reason for original Analogue service and the payTV extra Satellite channels are much better quality and same price and more channels than MMDS. Dish is not much bigger.

There are about 45 decent free satellite channels. About 120 decent pay TV satellite channels and about 800 total. All higer quality than same channel on Cable or MMDS.

There are reasons to chose Cable over Satellite (no dish allowed and/or Broadband and/or phone desired without phone line).

There are no compelling reasons whatsoever anymore for MMDS. It's an inferior system to satellite with similar size dish and often higher pole (sat dish will work on the ground or a wall, doesn't need chimney).

There are various Wireless Broadband systems (Metro also does phone) that can be used with MMDS, but teamed with satellite you get more channels, better quality for same money.

Talk to UPC (2.5GHz) and SCTV (12GHz). They are the only MMDS providers.

snaps

Watty,
Will upc (ex ntl) MMDS service ever have as many channels as proper city cable? I now recieve MMDS from UPC after a move from Galway city and I only get about 80 tv channels compared to a lot more i got in the city (Setanta channels an example)

Due to billing problems and general problems with UPC im thinking of trying to get out of my contract and move completely over to satellite. I already have a dual output FTV (Uk card) system

Solair

MMDS will never be able to provide the same number of channels as cable as there simply isn't anything like the bandwidth on the MMDS network that there is on cable.

watty

MMDS about 80 @ decent compression (I think UPC plan to do up to 120).
About 200 channels using MPEG4.

100MHz bandwidth. Cable has up to 700MHz downstream, but about 1/2 may be needed for Broadband, leaving about 3x to 4x capacity. But it is irrelevent as in near term the MMDS will be shut down and spectrum sold to Mobile/Phone/Internet.

snaps

So if the MMDS is shut down does that mean us country people will not be able to recieve cable anymore?

zilog_jones

There'll be some subscription service on digital terrestrial TV when that launches properly. UPC are one of a few going for the license.

watty

snaps wrote: »

So if the MMDS is shut down does that mean us country people will not be able to recieve cable anymore?

It never really was cable and has been surpassed years ago by Satellite, similar size dish and 50+ useful TV channels and 40+ useful radio channels are free. No sub at all.

Indeed UPC's plan does seem do be to have DTT as the new MMDS. Other than actually totally free, it's the 2nd best plan there is.

syboit

watty wrote: »

It never really was cable and has been surpassed years ago by Satellite, similar size dish and 50+ useful TV channels and 40+ useful radio channels are free. No sub at all.

Indeed UPC's plan does seem do be to have DTT as the new MMDS. Other than actually totally free, it's the 2nd best plan there is.

Any idea of timelines on this ? Upc turning off mmds/launching DTT ?

watty

The BCI DTT Mux licencing "relaunch" (rehash of 2001 with MPEG4 added and DVB-RCT removed) is happening now. Bids close this month (April 2008).

Comreg site somewhere has the expiry date of MMDS (sometime 2011 or 2012?)


UPC/RTE nor anyone else has "got" the 3 commercial DTT MUX yet. There will be more mux when Analogue TV closes (sometime between 2012 and 2020 I'd guess!)

Ireland does not HAVE to switch off Analogue and go to DTT. The EU is only recommending it.

Solair

How many channels could be squished into the DTT muxes though? Does that compare to existing MMDS bandwidth?

watty

MMDS has 100MHz. (About 180 to 200 MPEG4 channels, currently uses MPEG2, hence limit of 80 to 120 depending on quality and signal power).

IF Analogue TV closes and Digital uses SFN and comreg sell off half the spectrum there will still be 200MHz. About 300 SD channel and 20 HD channels.

Currently the 3 commercial Mux can do about 36 channels in MPEG4 at "sensible" quality.