Helplines congested as Finland switches over to digital television

Estonian viewers without a decoder can no longer see Finnish TV

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Finnish television has gone digital. A major part of the radio frequencies previously used by the analogue television channels were left vacant on Saturday morning. A decison on their future use will not be made anytime soon, as rather surprisingly a debate continues on whether or not the frequences should be reserved for television and radio services, or whether part of them should be allocated to mobile phones.
      The delay is a little strange: after all, one of the main arguments given for switching over to digital television in this country was to free up the analogue frequencies.
     
The introduction of digital television early on Saturday morning brought congestion to all the telephone lines to the national service centre of Digita Oy, the leading Finnish distributor of radio and television services. Digita’s DigiTV info answers questions related to the digital television broadcasts.
     
"Even though we were prepared for a large number of calls, the day was busier than we had been able to anticipate", said Project Manager Riitta Kontula from Digita.
      "The first hour of the morning was surprisingly quiet, but thereafter the number of calls was enormous and no more callers could get through”, reported Digita’s Communications Manager Birgitta Selonen.
      "Previously such calls lasted for just a few minutes, but yesterday the duration of the calls was from 10 to 15 minutes, even half an hour. People were installing their digital decoders while asking for guidance from the helpdesk. It was naturally appropriate but also bound to clog up the lines", Selonen added.
      Last-minute guidance has been arranged for example at the statue of the Three Smiths in downtown Helsinki, where experts have been answering questions relating to digital television broadcasts.
      On Saturday, Digita informed the viewers of disturbances which occasionally occurred on the channels of the national public broadcaster YLE.
      "The image appears to freeze from time to time", said Director Timo Kiiskinen from Digita. The disturbance is difficult to spot, as it occurs just occasionally and only on some receivers. Efforts will be made to fix the defect in the course of next week.
     
Large numbers of customers were also queueing on Saturday for the customer service of Elisa, the Finnish telecommunications operator.
      Elisa is in charge of the cable TV network for example in the city of Kerava, in which all homes with cable television - both analogue and digital - in the district of Kannisto stopped receiving broadcast signals on Friday afternoon. The fault was repaired on Saturday.
     
With analogue television broadcasting coming to an end in Finland, it was not just the Finns who saw snow on their screens if they had not got a digital decoder.
      Estonian households with analogue TV also lost broadcast signals from Finnish channels.
      Some 50,000 households using antennas on the northern coast of Estonia have been watching Finnish television programmes regularly.
     
During the Cold War era, and before Estonia regained its independence from the Soviet Union, Finnish TV provided a useful window for Estonians - not simply as an alternative - and less propagandist - source of world news, but also in the form of popular series such as Dallas or Dynasty. Even today, some claim the news bulletins have a better coverage of world events, and that the Finnish weather forecasters are more reliable.
      Fifteen to twenty years ago, the loss of the window to the West offered by the Finnish signals would have been something of a catastrophe. Now it is merely a minor inconvenience, made appreciably less so by the fact that many Estonian satellite and cable providers already also supply Finnish channels in their packages. Equally, viewers in the areas where the programmes could be seen can buy a digital decoder of their own, if they so wish.
      Estonia plans to go digital in four years' time.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Digital television era comes in tonight (31.8.2007)

Links:
  Digita Oy
  Digi-TV
  Ministry of Transport and Communications

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