The Special Language Site

Auctions proposed by Ofcom for the reallocation of spectrum have raised protests from a segment of bandwidth users who claim their business and livelihood would be adversely affected if reallocation were carried out.

The process started with the proposal to turn UK’s television signals digital. This resulted in freeing up a broad spectrum of bandwidth for commercial use. Ofcom proposed that as part of the Digital Britain initiative, this be auctioned off to service providers. The bandwidth would be used to provide mobile broadband services to every British citizen by 2012, a key pointer in the Digital Britain charter.

Towards this end, Ofcom has begun the process of reallocating the spectrum to existing users. This has created a problem with a small segment of existing users who were happy to keep to themselves as long as the existing arrangements were maintained. This group essentially comprises of a small part of the entertainment industry that uses short-distance radio transmission for performance microphones and the like.

Concerned members such as the Royal Shakespeare Company and the Professional Footballers’ Association have banded together to protest the move by Ofcom. Their campaign group, Save Our Sound, claims that with the shifting of bandwidth, all their existing equipment would be rendered useless. Though Ofcom has offered to recompense them, they claim that the money would not be enough for them to re-equip.

This is likely to cause problems in performances as well as in the telecast of game commentary and live news feeds. As a result, a number of businesses are likely to be affected and several owners may go bankrupt, the group claims.

If you require more information on mobile broadband and on the services of various ISP’s, click on mobile broadband review for consumers’ views on the service providers.

Comments Off