What to do with the idle frequencies?

There was no need to shut down analogue channels so quickly

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By Jyrki Alkio
     
      Now they are here - radio frequencies with free space.
      The digital project, which has lasted for more than ten years, reached the chequered flag on Saturday when the network company Digita flipped the switch and stopped the broadcast of analogue TV signals.
      The valuable frequencies can now be taken into other uses.
      Such assurances have been made for several years. However, the reality is somewhat different.
     
The frequencies that are being freed from the analogue broadcasts do not have any use, at least for a little while. No decisions can even be made for a year or two. In the worst of cases, not even during the current decade.
      Yesterday six new digital pay-TV channels became available, using some of the frequencies freed up by analogue TV. Mobile phone TV will also take up some of the frequencies liberated from analogue broadcasts.
      Nevertheless, at least three out of four of the frequencies in the spectrum freed up by the closing of analogue channels will remain empty.
     
As no decisions have been made on the future, the transition to digital TV could conceivably have been slower, no?
      No. The TV companies disagree.
      For them, the end of analogue broadcasts is bringing clear cost benefits. The companies have calculated that they will save about EUR 30 million, now that they no longer have to pay Digita for maintaining parallel broadcasts.
      This is a small sum of money, considering how much Finnish homes have paid for digitalisation.
      During the past couple of years, about EUR 200 million has been spent on digital decoders and about half a billion has been spent on flat-panel television receivers - although granted not all of that was spent because of the digital transition.
      The devices would have had to have been bought even if the transition to digital TV were to have taken place later. However, with less haste, homes could probably have been able to acquire better equipment for the same price.
     
So what should be done with the frequencies that are being freed up?
      Should they be reserved for the needs of high-definition TV or given to new channels?
      TV companies have seen the frequencies as their own private turf, so they feel that the analogue frequencies should be used for TV programmes in the future as well.
      However, telecommunications operators have questioned the exclusive rights of TV companies for the frequencies being freed up, and have started to demand some of them for themselves. The present frequencies for mobile telephones will be sufficient through the middle of the next decade, but after that, the growing mobile phone traffic will need more space.
      However, the TV frequencies are technically difficult to be used for mobile phone service, as TV channels use different frequencies in different parts of the country.
     
The argument over the frequencies is expected to intensify in late October and early November, when experts gather in Geneva at the world's radio frequency conference. There a few countries, apparently Finland among them, will try to change the purpose of UHF frequencies so that in addition to TV and radio broadcasting, they could also be used for mobile telephony.
      It would not be appropriate to give the new frequencies over to mobile phones in Finland alone, because the technology is not being developed for the needs of just one country. A unified decision on frequencies should be made at the European level, at the very least.
     
Nobody knows in advance what will be decided in Geneva. It is possible that the decision will be delayed by four years. If this happens, Finland will have to decide this autumn whether or not to stay and wait for the next conference, or whether to make faster decisions independently.
      The decisions will be made by the government on the basis of preparations by the Ministry of Transport and Communications. Already last winter a ministry working group tried to decide what to do to the frequencies being freed up. No clarifications came on the issue.
     
One factor slowing down national decision-making could be that the EU is preparing extensive changes to the directive on communications.
      The European Commission has promised to make a proposal for a new directive in October. The content of the proposal has been kept a secret, but some predict that the Commission wants to shift decision-making power on frequency policy from the member states to the EU and a new Union-wide regulator.
      Such dramatic changes are unlikely. However, it is apparent that the Commission wants a new way to divide the frequencies. For instance, Finland has granted licences on the basis of a beauty contest of sorts - by placing the applicants in an order of preference. In the future, the licences might just be auctioned off to the highest bidder.
     
If the Commission gets its proposal ready in October, a brisk debate is in prospect. Getting the directive ready is expected to take a couple of years, and bringing it into national legislation could take equally long.
      If it wants to, Finland could distribute the frequencies now being left unused before the new laws take effect. Another option is to postpone decisions until the new law comes into effect - three or four years from now.
      Still, Finland is not standing completely idle. The idea of greater efficiency in the use of the frequencies is mentioned in the government's policy programme. Anticipating an EU proposal, Minister of Communications Suvi Lindén (Nat. Coalition Party) set up a working group this week to examine the principles of commercialisation of the vacant frequencies.
     
Helsingin Sanomat / First published in print 2.9.2007


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Helplines congested as Finland switches over to digital television (3.9.2007)

Links:
  Digitelkkari.fi - Information in English (.pdf file)
  Ministry of Transport and Communications

JYRKI ALKIO / Helsingin Sanomat
jyrki.alkio@hs.fi