Industry Canada puts moratorium on the use of television channel 51

[hugh]

In a letter to the CRTC last month, Industry Canada says it has put a moratorium on the use of television channel 51, the current upper limit of the broadcast spectrum band.

The Canadian move follows similar actions by the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) last August.

Industry Canada says it's taking the action in order to promote the deployment of wireless broadband services in the lower part of 700 MHz (A Block) spectrum.

The department says the decision applies to all regular power and low power TV applications and is effective immediately. The moratorium affects only the applications for new or modification to facilities predicated on increased usage of the spectrum. It does not affect existing regular power or low power television stations on channel 51. Those stations may continue to operate previously authorized facilities.

[gmd]

The plan is not to use it to prevent interference, but it is part of the wireless spectrum, channel 50 will have the same effect, and so on.

Time for better utilization of attributed bandwidth, not shuffling around. If all was given to wireless, they'd find new ways to waste it.

[holl_ands]

Technical Articles by Charles Rhodes (TV Technology Mag) re Interference between DTV
and New Cell Phone Freqs in the so-called 700 MHz Band:
http://www.tvtechnology.com/article/...xamined/210567
http://www.tvtechnology.com/article/...roblems/210841

BTW: Ch51 might be helping by eliminating ADJACENT channel interference to Cell Phones,
but as Charles Rhodes points out, there can be significant NEXT ADJACENT
(N+/-1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, etc) EMI...esp. anywhere near the DTV Antenna Farms....and
when/if even more UHF freqs are transitioned from DTV to Cell Phone usage, then
EVERY lower channel will be occupied, making it certain that IMD products will fall
on top of the even Newer Cell Phone Freqs....at which point, ALL DTV operations
will be encouraged to move to the VHF Band....just Ch2-13...minus Ch5+6 for FM????

[ScaryBob]

The traditional remedy has been to reduce power allotments on frequencies that may interfere with other services. For example, this was done with the low end of the FM band to prevent channel 6 interference. Eliminating use of channel 51 looks more like a claw back. Next up, the channel 51 frequencies will go to cellular services and channel 50 will be eliminated...

[HDTV101]

The way I see it in the future (less then 10 years) they will go after 600MHz too pushing the TV channels lower, then they will go after 500MHz. The spectrum is to valuable a natural resource that it will be sold off in time to the Cell phone companies.

The other question you have to look at is ‘do we really need 51 channels for DTV?’ The answer is clearly no we do not. We have around digital 20+ OTA channels in the GTA… the amount of spectrum they also use could be cut in half, right now, if they were to switch over to MPEG-4, so in the future I’m sure they will be forced over to MPEG-4.

Another idea that comes to my mind when I think about all of this is… do we really need to be sending out Digital TV using one high power transmitter? What if we used a series on low power digital TV transmitters every few miles… the existing Cell phone towers could each be equipped with low power digital OTA ATSC transmitters forming their own cellular TV network. Since Digital TV already uses virtual channeling this would work very well allowing adjacent cells to use different RF channels. This would give great coverage to the end users… you would only need a small indoor antenna to receive the signal for a local cell tower. All you DTV channels would be coming from the one tower. This would also prevent Canadians from receiving American TV if they were also to switch to such a system… and we know our Government will like that idea.

The use of low power transmitters would also take care of any interference problems.

I’m sure in the next 20 years we’re going to see a big change in the way Digital TV is delivered OTA.

[GeorgeMx]

The IC moratorium on channel 51 makes the Rogers application to move from 51 to 40 look like a good bet. I know that they are not forcing existing channel 51 stations to move but clearing the channel in Toronto fits with the new policy. In a big market like Toronto, why would IC refuse the channel change? I think it's a done deal.

[Jase88]

We don't have 51 channels available for OTA. 2-13; 14-51 minus 37 and 51. So 48.

And yes, we need that many to prevent interference from other stations.

One high power transmitter is the most spectrum efficient manner of delivering services. Short range transmitters would require more spectrum to reduce interference. And using low power transmitters would increase the cost of providing services: More equipment, more tower rental, etc.

[MonopolyBuster]

Originally Posted by HDTV101

The way I see it in the future (less then 10 years) they will go after 600MHz too pushing the TV channels lower, then they will go after 500MHz. The spectrum is to valuable a natural resource that it will be sold off in time to the Cell phone companies.

The other question you have to look at is ‘do we really need 51 channels for DTV?’ The answer is clearly no we do not. We have around digital 20+ OTA channels in the GTA… the amount of spectrum they also use could be cut in half, right now, if they were to switch over to MPEG-4, so in the future I’m sure they will be forced over to MPEG-4.

Another idea that comes to my mind when I think about all of this is… do we really need to be sending out Digital TV using one high power transmitter? What if we used a series on low power digital TV transmitters every few miles… the existing Cell phone towers could each be equipped with low power digital OTA ATSC transmitters forming their own cellular TV network. Since Digital TV already uses virtual channeling this would work very well allowing adjacent cells to use different RF channels. This would give great coverage to the end users… you would only need a small indoor antenna to receive the signal for a local cell tower. All you DTV channels would be coming from the one tower. This would also prevent Canadians from receiving American TV if they were also to switch to such a system… and we know our Government will like that idea.

The use of low power transmitters would also take care of any interference problems.

I’m sure in the next 20 years we’re going to see a big change in the way Digital TV is delivered OTA.

You might as well talk about the planets aligning. So stop that! We are not talking about what is reasonable, rather where can money be made.

Your logic makes too much sense and for that reason it will never work.