The EBU has reacted angrily to European Commission proposals for an early handover of UHF spectrum to the mobile sector.
EBU Head of European Affairs Nicola Frank said: “Moving DTT services out of the 700MHz band by 2020 is a major challenge, in particular for those Member States where DTT is the main platform to receive television. In Europe, 250 million people receive their television services through DTT.
“Broadcasters will need to make costly changes to their infrastructure. Member states should clearly be able to provide for compensation for both consumers and broadcasters in order to cater for the investment needed to implement the change.”
Frank also expressed concern over the so-called ‘flexibility option’ in the sub 700MHz band, saying the European Commission was opting for something that had not been validated by technical studies and for which there was no proven market demand.
The EBU has previously largely backed the European Commission’s proposals on future spectrum use. Broadcasters welcomed the ’20-25-30’ conclusions to the 2014 High Level Group of Spectrum chaired by Pascal Lamy because it set a flexible deadline for transition of DTT out of the 700 MHz band and required sub-700 MHz frequencies to continue being used for TV broadcasting until 2030, with a review planned in 2025.
Instead, the Commission has set a strict deadline for clearing the 700MHz band from DTT by 2020, taking away the flexibility broadcasters required in some Member States.
“Having 2020 as the common deadline for repurposing the 700 MHz frequency band is appropriate also because it ties in with initial 5G deployment,” it says, making the case for the so-called Option 3 in line with decisions made at the recent WRC-15 conference. “Flexibility of use for sub-700 MHz spectrum makes it easier to mitigate interference and makes it possible to create an innovative ‘ecosystem’ promoting investment and new business models.”
In addition to Lamy, the Commission has also drawn on the RSPG report into ‘Proposed spectrum coordination approach for broadcasting in the case of a reallocation of the 700 MHz band’.
The Commissions says clearing the 700MHz band in 2020 and upgrading to next generation terrestrial broadcasting technology would cost an estimated €1.2 to 4.4 billion.
