700MHZ Clearance options...

Sam the Aerialman

http://stakeholders.ofcom.org.uk/binaries/consultations/uhf-strategy/arqiva.pdf

Makes interesting reading were Ireland is concerned...
As some may be/ may not be aware, Ofcom had been planning to auction
off channels 31-38, possibly for up to three new multiplexes.
However, the recent World Radio Communication Conference 2012 decided in
their infinite wisdom to put making mobile phone services co-primary in
694-790 MHz ('700 MHz band')on the agenda for WRC-15. This means that
suddenly space has to be found somewhere to put all the services currently
in this range, and the 600 MHz band is all we have left.

This would basically mean losing the entire Group C/D range and retuning
about 1/3rd of the transmitters in the country. The lose of a net four
channels, so there would have to be more extensive Single Frequency Networks
and, worst case, have to close some multiplexes. A switch to DVB-T2 would
have to come faster than people are expecting.

Winter Hill, Mendip, Limavady, Huntshaw to name just a few high profile transmitters
would ALL REQUIRE EXTENSIVE MULTIPLE RETUNING and at worst case scenario a COMPLETE
CHANGE OF AERIAL GROUP meaning aerial changes.

The finer points were Ireland/ NI is concerned -

Firstly the Geneva GE-06 plan would be re-negotiated and Ireland which would
have access to 8 layers of DTT planning will be reduced down to layer 6.

Clermont Carn, Truskmore and Monaghan relay would lose all channels
allocated to them and be completely re-assigned frequencies. Kippure and
Three Rock would also lose channels.

Limavady's channels will be completely re-assigned as will Llandonna
which as some put down in Ireland's coast.

Clermont Carn for example would likely be re-assigned 35, 40, 43, 46, 48

Scenario 1 indicated that LIMAVADY and LONDONDERRY would operate as an SFN.

Divis and Brougher would likely run as an SFN which significant tie backs in
ERP at Brougher.

It makes very interesting reading for the future of terrestrial DTT...

Antenna

Sam the Aerialman wrote: »

It makes very interesting reading for the future of terrestrial DTT...

Maybe it could in the future see VHF Band III being used in some areas of the republic for DTT ???

aerial man

Antenna wrote: »

Maybe it could in the future see VHF Band III being used in some areas of the republic for DTT ???

Is than one of the main reasons why rte insisted on having VHF III DTT tuners in TV's and STB's to be Saorview compliant? Planning ahead I suppose!

The Cush

aerial man wrote: »

Is than one of the main reasons why rte insisted on having VHF III DTT tuners in TV's and STB's to be Saorview compliant? Planning ahead I suppose!

Ireland has a national VHF DTT layer allocated back at GE-06 for which potential for a Second DD Sub Band Post DSOthe planning started back in the early 2000's, long before there were any plans for a Digital Dividend 2 (the UK doesn't have a VHF DTT allocation).

Also VHF tuning is a mandatory requirement of the Nordig receiver standard which Saorview uses.

In any case it'll be 2018 at the earliest before any of this band will be released and maybe at that time not all 12 UHF channels will be made available. Lots of difficult negotiations between regulators, terrestrial broadcasters etc. in the years ahead. Keep an eye on the various terrestrial lobby groups - Digitag, EBU, BNE and ACT.

Comreg plan to carry out a review and consultation on the potential for a second DD sub band post DSO in the middle of the year.

watty

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2056594316

I think it's a crazy idea to reduce Broadcast further. The 600MHz is needed for Ofcom's Local TV plan anyway.

More cells on 900MHz and 1800MHz would work better.

700MHz cell size is too big.

Sponge Bob

While I would have thought this a runner in Ireland with low spectrum utilisation owing to the failure of Commercial DTT I didn't think the UK would lead on the reallocation of the 700mhz+ spectrum to Mobile Operators.

It would be conceivable were Freeview and MPEG2 to be abandoned in 2018 when the refarm is supposed to start, associated with a move to DVB-T2/Mpeg4 in the refarm areas no doubt.

As Watty says the problem with 700mhz is that it naturally travels too far.

It would of course be useful in grographically defined areas along the west coast and with LOW population and serial planning difficulties owing to environmental regulations and indeed for offshore coverage in the Marine environment on the 'other side' of the cell.

However it is rather useless in urban areas or in the flat Midlands as Watty said. Once TV was cleared off Band 1 VHF (where Maghera used to interfere with and suffer interference from Bilbao in Spain) around 20 years ago they never really found another use or allocation for that band between c.60 and 88mhz.

watty

DRM+ or DRM is superior to DAB and ideal for 5 to 20 National / Regional stations on 42MHz to 68MHz band. Only about 10 transmitters needed for 100% portable/Mobile coverage. No use for Local Radio. VHF-FM is best for local radio.

It's not feasible to abandon MPEG-2/DVB-T and replace with MPEG4 + DVB-T2 by 2018. Even so there will be pressure to do that eventually as ALL channels move to HD and if Ofcom manages to get Local Digital TV going.

I predict that even with existing post ASO Digital TV *AND* adding in the currently unused 600MHz in UK they will not actually have enough spectrum for Broadcast. IPTV is complementary to Broadcast. Even if every home had 10Gbps fibre, IPTV can't replace broadcast.

Since there will never be as many channels on Terrestrial here, there isn't as much spectrum pressure, but if all current stations are in HD and 1 or two in "proper" Steroscopic HD (not 720 x 1080 or 960 x1080) then we would need 7 multiplexes for EXISTING channels, excluding Oireachtas TV and any other extras.

Also currently Terrestrial HD is a 1440 x 1080 interlaced, rather than 1920 x 1080 to save space at expense of quality. Similarly SD is currently at 544 x 576 approx instead of 720 x 576.

Broadcasters are testing the next generation of HD which needs x3 the spectrum.
Same quality so called "3D" (stereoscopic) as HD needs x2 current HD.

"real" 3D if it ever comes to Broadcast needs x50 spectrum probably when they figure how to compress it (at the minute it needs a minimum of 400 off HD images!).

Far better use can be made of 800 (Digital dividend) and 900 (GSM) by making that one LTE band 800MHz to 960MHz with single Wholesale operator. That would give about x4 better performance than 700, 800 and 900 used separately! But 1/20th roughly income for regulator in licence fee. The Licence structures are a tax on the consumer that do reverse of Regulator claims. The Regulator claims the higher the licence price and the more operators the better the use of the spectrum. The reverse is true.

1800MHz is pathetically used and is a good band.

2.5 to 2.6 isn't being used at all yet in UK & Ireland. It's an internationally used band.

Are we to sell off 700MHz because:
1) The FCC are stupid and we should copy them
2) Apple has only put lower LTE band used in US in their iPad3?

Daft reasons.

It would of course be useful in grographically defined areas along the west coast and with LOW population and serial planning difficulties owing to environmental regulations and indeed for offshore coverage in the Marine environment on the 'other side' of the cell.

But other FIXED wireless solutions would be even better.