Comments on: FCC to Broadcasters: You Gonna Use All That Spectrum?

By: Fox-TWC Fight Could Weaken Broadcasters’ Hold on Spectrum – GigaOM

Fox-TWC Fight Could Weaken Broadcasters’ Hold on Spectrum – GigaOM — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 20:55:28 +0000

[...] 800 MHz of spectrum (and would love to pay for it via a revenue-generating auction), while the FCC has floated some trial balloons to take some of that spectrum from broadcasters. If broadcasters can’t offer “The [...]

By: Worthless ATSC

Worthless ATSC — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 00:52:18 +0000

This would all be well and good if I actually got reception thats worth a fuck. The broadcast nodes in my area are within 1 mile of me and they still come in shitty, all of them, except that annoying fucking religious channel. I'd rather they switch back to the traditional NTSC standard, fuck this digital bullshit. I'll take a little static and fuzz in my channel every day, as opposed to this digitized bleep-bloop blowjob face shit we have now.

By: Wes Felter

Wes Felter — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 00:34:00 +0000

TV stations cannot convert to MPEG-4 any time soon because all those free converter boxes don't support it. The only relevant numbers are for MPEG-2. Considering that the only people who receive OTA are those who don't care about quality anyway, I think it would be legitimate for broadcasters to switch to 480i MPEG-2 and thus free up most of their spectrum.

By: Chris Albrecht

Chris Albrecht — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 21:49:44 +0000

Hey Dan,

Thanks for your comment. I didn't account for the differences between standards, and have updated the story accordingly.

By: Dan Agostino

Dan Agostino — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 20:15:55 +0000

Chris, Interesting article as always.

I'm wondering if you could clarify what experts are saying that broadcasters are only using 1-2 MHz of their bandwidth?

Each 6 MHz channel allows for a maximum of 19.4 Mbits/sec of bandwidth, using the ATSC standard's modulation rules. It sounds like you are saying that most ATSC broadcasters are only using one-third of that bit range for their MPEG-2 HD feeds, which puts us in the range of 6.5 Mbits/sec. For HD resolutions, that bit rate is only enough to get good quality using H.264, and ATSC (as deployed in the U.S. at least) does not use H.264.

By: connectedtraveler

connectedtraveler — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 20:14:21 +0000

Just how much could they get by taking away 4mhz from each tv station in a market? Table scraps.

Wireless carriers will have to move to more efficient technologies sooner to stay ahead. They can't count on getting more and more bandwidth that doesn't exist. Its not as if some more fiber can be laid in existing conduits.

By: ashyoungblood

ashyoungblood — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 19:53:49 +0000

Personally, I see more of a sustained well-being of the American population (and a better advantage from all angles) if we were to ensure the average American had free or inexpensive OVA net access which they could use to access streaming television.

I mean... that's where the shift needs to change... We've got 98% of Americans with TVs in the home... lets get the internet access count up that high now.

By: Anthony

Anthony — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 19:37:18 +0000

Finding innovated ways to bring broadband access to all Americans is critical in closing the digital divide. Broadband technology has the ability to bring jobs back to rural communities and help create economic growth in their local economies. http://www.broadbandforamerica.com/