Can't wait for 4G? Take heart, 5G is on the way

"in the future accessing the Public Service Broadcasters by IP"

Good plan, if only we all had internet connection which were fast enough.

And using the argument that the spectrum will be used for this it rural / outlying areas won't do either.

Can't we just leave Freeview as it is __until__ an alternative is available, not in an attempt to force it?

IPTV?

Why is Ofcom so convinced the future of TV is IP? More than a decade after the first consumer broadband appeared in the UK there are still large swathes of the country that don't have it and 3G coverage is still patchy at best!

Historical allocation for TV

Is a public good.

Unlike anything likely to replace it in that spectrum.

doesn't matter

Nobody will be will be able to afford EE's monopoly tariffs (rolled out inside the M25 only for the first 4 years) anyway.

It's a consultation

Not sure why people are getting bent out of shape because Free View Spectrum is being looked at some time in the next 16 years or so. Spectrum is a finite resource that has to be efficiently used.

Small Cells are very useful in this regard, as when used in those heavily attenuated edges of a Macro cell, can provide the lacking coverage. MNO's are in the process of releasing RFP's for these and expect developments in the coming years. For rural area's, an amount of tax payer or EU subsidy may be needed to make the business case work.

TV Broadcasters are trialing IP only networks at present, from capture to production through to distribution. It will take sometime and clearly infrastructure to reach every household currently able to receive a TV broadcast. The access mechanism to enable the TV services of the future are going to be a hurdle the country must overcome and I suspect the answer will be fibre or techniques utilising copper pairs. It is not beyond the realms of imagination that LTE-A and whatever comes after will also be a valid mechanism.

Ofcom have put forward a consultation paper for the industry and consumers to respond too and given a realistic timeframe to plan for changes. Nobody is going to refarm the spectrum until costs, impacts and technology allows it to happen.

Just my 2 penneth from within the industry.

What's the point of more mobile bandwidth...

... if it costs you at least 10x more than non-mobile data. Most of the stuff I want to do out & about gets done by finding WiFi hotspots first where possible, as I'd rather not blow my month's allowance in a couple of hours.

Maybe Ofcom should have some pointed words with the networks before letting 'em anywhere near new spectrum.

Why do we need Free View as well as satellite?

Given that satellites reaches even the most remove areas and everywhere else can get broadband, we need to question if FreeView is worth its bandwidth in the long term. Also way have all the “+1” chancels on FreeView when head disk recorders are not that expensive.

A solution to satellite dishes on block of flats needs to be found, e.g. force the freeholder to install a communal system

If all the church towers where used for 4G cells with Microwave back links, we could cover most of the country with 4G within a few years provided the will and funding was there.

I would like to see free roaming onto any network, (pay for by my network) in any part of the UK when my network does not give me at least 3G coverage. This will give a nice income to the networks that do cover remote areas. Maybe in remove area allow a network to have exclusive right to cover the area for 5 years in exchange for them giving very good coverage of the area.

There's also the cost to end users

You can bet your bottom dollar that IP in this spectrum for end users watching TV won't be "unlimited" and that therefore there will be a cost to the end user in terms of bandwidth usage etc. Now this may not bother those of you "buying" your boxsets from Sky, Netflix etc but all of a sudden it will cut a swathe into the viewing figures of much of the television output, and viewing of different programs at the same time by members of a family in different rooms would also be costly. (I remain deeply deeply traumatised by having to miss Planet of the Apes as it clashed with The Brothers in the early-mid 1970's)

Whilst such a cull might improve quality a bit it would also make the producers less likely to back anything "risky" and therefore ultimately choice will deteriorate and we'll have even more repeats of Bargain Hunt. I would point out that it also means that you're paying to watch advertisments but on reflection, given that some people pay nearly £1000 p.a. to Rupert Murdoch for just that my arguement invalid on that point is rendered somewhat invalid.

Awesome, hopefully by the time they are talking about 57G my 3G signal might finally become usable....

ofcom chats the same ass every few months, and there will just be another 1000 comments saying it wont happen, freeview is all you can watch 24/7, and no ISP will every let you leave your tv watch HD and 3d movies 24/7 365 without charging your £30,000 a month instead of the already worthless £14 you have to pay for the bbc

Needs to be world-wide agreement on bands, not a little-England solution

I am astonished how little there is in the OFCOM document on international portability. We already have 4g phones that will work in the UK but not in many other countries, and similarly if you buy a 4g phone in North America it won't work here. As people travel more, this is going to be more and more irksome. Even if roaming charges around the world stay high, at least the European Commission seems to be taking some action to curb the rapacity of the mobile providers within Europe.

What OFCOM needs to do is work out what bands are likely to be available for 5g usage around the world and then see whether these same bands could be made available for the same purpose within the UK. Providing a solution that just works in a small area like the UK would be stupid.

forget 4G and 5G, I want 3G

Much of Suffolk England were I live has no 3G access,

When the NHS outsourced some of its admin work a company who decided to save money by closing Suffolk offices and provide 3G enabled laptops for staff to work from home, they rapidly reconcidered on discovering that most of Suffolk could not get a 3G signal.

I like living in a rural area but connectivity issues continue. I doubt Suffolk and the other rural counties will get 4G outside the largest towns or citys for several years.