According to research just published by the Dutch Telecom Agency (Agentschap Telecom), the use of LTE devices leads in three quarters of cases to interference to the digital cable TV signal. In 50% of cases neighbours are also effected.
The organisation tested a number of configurations and scenarios. “The results of the measurements show that there is a high likelihood of interference and that the default configuration is not sufficient to prevent this,” claimed the Agency. LTE stands for Long Term Evolution, the next generation of mobile broadband access after UMTS.
The agency tested several scenarios with different bandwidths and whether or not a specially protected cable was used. In a normal scenario, without an especially protected cable and a mobile device that complies with European standards there were issues in three of the four television sets at a distance of 3 metres.
The study was commissioned by the Ministry of Economic Affairs, who wants to know whether the 800 MHz frequencies, which are released after analogue switch-off are suitable for LTE.
The agency compared scenarios with the bandwidths 1.25 MHz, 5 MHz, 10 MHz and 20 MHz. The wider the bandwidth, the less distortion occurred. However, even in an optimized situation with a properly shielded coax cable, there was interference within a distance of 1 metre in half of the cases.
NOTE – You can download an English language version of the research findings directly from the website of the Telecom Agency by clicking here.
