[opendtv] Re: Commentary: Be Wary Of FCC's Cash-For-Spectrum Plan
- From: "Manfredi, Albert E" <albert.e.manfredi@xxxxxxxxxx>
- To: "opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx" <opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Tue, 3 Nov 2009 19:30:15 -0600
Tom Barry wrote:
> Much of the justification for the entire transition was the
> possibility of OTA HDTV. Yet I would wager that in any
> given entire month period now far less than 1 in 10
> households actually use an antenna to watch any OTA HDTV
> program on an HDTV display.
I'd love to know the real numbers on this. Don't forget that as long as DBS
makes local into local only as an extra premium service, and only in some
markets, there are potentially quite a few households that use OTA as an
adjunct to DBS, for local stations. Would you be so quick to dimsiss if, say,
OTA TV is used in 25 percent of households overall? Or, what number makes sense?
But again, the article alluded to some new stats, let's see them.
> HDTV or any fixed location TV reception in this country has
> already decisively gone to cable and satellite. The
> advantage of OTA now is really disconnected mobile. And
> given the other broadband needs we might as well just do
> that over 2 way IP services.
I agree, but it's not free. The article does say that there's still a need for
a TV broadcast service (perhaps even using local storage in the receivers). But
I too would discount that, if you get easy to receive ubiquitous RF broadband
that can afford the extra bandwidth for delivering enough TV channels. I'm
thinking, for instance, of the new cell phones with Ch 55 MediaFLO enabled.
> The point is that the guy on the bus next to you is already
> going to be carrying a cell phone/computer broadcasting RF at
> you anyway. That part won't change. It is inevitable.
> The question and addition is whether we need to overlay the
> spectrum with lots of other towers and signals just for
> broadcast TV channels that cell phone device can already
> receive if allowed. Is it worth it?
Yeah, that was just to debunk this syrupy prose about the beautiful green
spectrum we could create if only TV big sticks went away. Receiving TV (if
that's what the guy in the bus is doing) on a one-way broadcast frequency is
not going to bathe me in his own transmitter's W/m. On the other hand, if he
receives his TV on a two-way device, with connection to a server, such as LTE
or WiMAX, he will be transmitting back a steady stream of ACKs or similar
upostream handshakes. Far more RF energy there than the TV big stick. Almost
guaranteed.
By the way, I did appreciate the points he made about cell sizes and their
relationship to spectrum needs, and also about not being too single-minded in
just maximizing b/s/Hz. I just don't like the facile way people dismiss ATSC.
BECAUSE that becomes a simplistic excuse to say the system is so screwed up
that there's no point keeping it going. Which is precisely what their agenda is.
Bert
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