More of the UHF spectrum is being sold off to cater for mobile 5G services.
Only a couple of years ago part of the UHF band was sold to the mobile phone operators for use of 4G. As a result the terrestrial TV signals were affected by 4G interference, causing interference on the Freeview TV reception. Anyone who experienced these issues will understand the frustration of this issue.
Originally, 5G was planned to be put out in the UK in 2020, however, now it appears that as demand is so strong that it will most likely start to happen in 2019. 5G is being broadcast on the 700 MHz band which is currently being occupied by Freeview TV.
Engineering works have already begun to clear this frequency band for the new services with large amounts of transmitters having to change all or some of the frequencies that they are broadcast on.
AT800 - a government initiative was put in place to tackle the issue caused by 4G Interference and anyone who was affected could apply for a free internal 4G filter. This unit could be installed by the occupier, in their property, between the internal TV socket and the TV itself. In some cases this was enough to help filter out the unwanted 4G interference.
However, on other properties, the levels of 4G interference were so strong, that the installation of an internal 4G filter was just not sufficient. Therefore, on more affected properties, an external 4G filter would need to be installed at the aerial itself, in order to filter out the 4G interference at the initial point.
We presume that a similar initiative will be in place in response to 5G.
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