The last day that NTSC (officially - National Television Standards Committee; unofficially - Never The Same Color) analog television will be broadcast in the USA is February 17, 2009.
After that date, to receive over-the-air television broadcasting in the US, for those approximately 10% of overall US television viewers receive their video signals over the air (rather than cable or direct broadcast satellite):
- Will require the use of a digital television broadcast television receiver or a digital television broadcast adapter
- No longer be able to receive television channels 52-69; all television transmitters operating in that spectrum are required to cease transmission (or be "re-channeled" to a new channel in the range of channel 2-51; but it's very, very unlikely for a reassignment to be within "VHF" channels 2-13).
Although the FCC is requiring labeling of television receivers being currently sold to disclose whether or not they are "DTV Ready", it's going to be a very acrid conversion as the date approaches when all of those tens of millions televisions will suddenly stop working. The DTV transition will probably be the most wrenching transition to US consumers since AT&T was broken up.
The relevance to Broadband Wireless Internet Access is, of course, that on February 18, 2009, the 108 MHz of spectrum from 698 MHz to 806 MHz (as of that date, former television Channels 52-69) will be fully available and fully unencumbered to be used for a mixture of commercial and public safety communications.
By Steve Stroh
This article is Copyright © 2007 by Steve Stroh. Excerpts and links are expressly permitted (and encouraged.)
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