From next month televisions across the country will begin losing their signal, as the airwaves become more crowded by the introduction of 4G mobile broadband networks.
According to Ofcom, as many as 2.3 million households could be forced to take action if they want to continue receiving digital terrestrial television and not lose “some or all of their TV channels”.
Britain already has one 4G network, EE, which is available in 27 towns and cities. In its current form, however, it does not have an impact on television signals. This is because it operates in the 1,800MHz spectrum band, comfortably clear of the 700MHz band occupied by Freeview.
Along with O2, Vodafone and Three, however, EE is currently bidding on chunks of spectrum in the 800MHz band, close enough to cause major problems of both interference and RF overload.
“European countries, including the UK, have been working towards making the same section of the airwaves available for mobile broadband,” an Ofcom spokesman explained.
“This brings many potential benefits, such as greater economies of scale for handset manufacturers which can feed through into lower consumer prices. In the UK, digital television uses spectrum which is adjacent to that which European countries have decided to use.”
