Ofcom Shifting TV Spectrum to Wireless Broadband

Doug Lung

U.K. telecommunications regulator Ofcom announced last week that it plans to reallocate 700 MHz spectrum currently used for broadcast DTV to wireless broadband.

“Within the coming months we will hold the UK’s largest ever auction of mobile spectrum for 4G, said Ed Richards, Ofcom’s chief executive. “However, that may not be enough to meet consumers’ future data demands, which is why we are already making significant efforts to prepare to go beyond 4G. Our plans are designed to avoid a ‘capacity crunch’, ensuring that the U.K.’s mobile infrastructure can continue to support the inescapable growth in consumer demand and economic growth more generally.”

Ofcom said its plans “also seek to ensure the long-term future of digital terrestrial TV (DTT), which performs an important role in providing low-cost, near universal access to the public service TV channels.”

Ofcom will achieve this by “ensuring alternative frequencies are available for DTT when the next generation of mobile broadband is introduced towards the end of the decade.” For the “vast majority of viewers” the change will be a “simple retune of existing TV equipment” but Ofcom said a small minority of consumers may need to change their roof-top aerials, likely sometime after 2018.

The Ofcom release includes a link to an assortment of coverage maps for many broadcast and mobile services.

Doug Lung

Doug Lung is one of America's foremost authorities on broadcast RF technology. As vice president of Broadcast Technology for NBCUniversal Local, H. Douglas Lung leads NBC and Telemundo-owned stations’ RF and transmission affairs, including microwave, radars, satellite uplinks, and FCC technical filings. Beginning his career in 1976 at KSCI in Los Angeles, Lung has nearly 50 years of experience in broadcast television engineering. Beginning in 1985, he led the engineering department for what was to become the Telemundo network and station group, assisting in the design, construction and installation of the company’s broadcast and cable facilities. Other projects include work on the launch of Hawaii’s first UHF TV station, the rollout and testing of the ATSC mobile-handheld standard, and software development related to the incentive auction TV spectrum repack.
A longtime columnist for TV Technology, Doug is also a regular contributor to IEEE Broadcast Technology. He is the recipient of the 2023 NAB Television Engineering Award. He also received a Tech Leadership Award from TV Tech publisher Future plc in 2021 and is a member of the IEEE Broadcast Technology Society and the Society of Broadcast Engineers.