Broadband for all

[VikingHumpingWitch]

Jan 29, 2009 14:37:46 GMT flatandy said:

Californication is ace.

Isn't it. The phrase eye-raping has entered my standard vocab.

Still don't understand what all this is about (and therefore suspect it's basically nothing being hyped up to take our minds off the fact that we're about to lose our jobs and thus homes and have to survive by eating our elderly neighbours).

[mids]

Doesn't every child have a laptop now? I'm sure Labour said they do.

[omnipleasant]

Yeah well the idea is to gradually get them online too Andy, which is a good thing if you ask me. And there's loads of other stuff too, replacing analogue radio etc. Generally getting Britain a bit spruced up and modernised as far as telecoms go.

[flatandy]

I don't want analogue radio replaced. Why replace it? Why not have both analogue and digital?

And eating our elderly neighbours will be bad. The meat will be tough and thoroughly disagreeable.

[omnipleasant]

Lord Carter's final report in June will mark the most significant change in British broadcasting and internet policy since the creation of Ofcom more than five years ago and the publication of his interim report tomorrow will set out the breadth of his vision.

It ranges from a promise that by the time of the London Olympics everyone will be able to get an internet connection that is fast enough to watch the games live on the web to possible relaxation of the rules on local newspaper ownership and increasing the nation's so-called digital literacy so that children know how to protect themselves online

[VikingHumpingWitch]

Oh well if they're replacing analogue radio then it's fantastic. I for one couldn't care less if my job disappears as long as I know Britain is heading towards digital radio services only. You would not adamandeve how many sleepless nights I've spent fretting about that.

[omnipleasant]

"I for one couldn't care less if my job disappears as long as I know Britain is heading towards digital radio services only"

Yeah. What are they thinking of? The government shouldn't be doing ANYTHING apart from making economic policies at the moment.

[flatandy]

What is the benefit to switching off analogue, exactly?

[omnipleasant]

Apparently you can flog the spectrum to mobile phone companies to raise extra cash for the BBC, Trident and ID cards Andy.

[omnipleasant]

And digital is just, you know, loads better and more modern. Like electric light bulbs are better than gas lamps.

[flatandy]

Phone companies want to use the AM wavebands? Really?

So if I keep my old AM radio I'll be able to listen to confidential calls between the government and their secret service agents who are interning anyone without ID cards?

[flatandy]

We haven't banned gas lamps, you know?

[omnipleasant]

Don't ask me, it's what it says in the guardian.

[omnipleasant]

Here you go. I'm none the wiser. "digital dividend", eh?

Ofcom is due to reveal its plans for mobile phone spectrum next month, but Carter is understood to have suggested the mobile operators be allowed to keep their existing mobile broadband – or 3G – licences well beyond their original 20-year lifespan in exchange for helping out with the estimated £1bn to £3.5bn cost of introducing universal broadband.

Such a deal would mean Vodafone and O2 – the UK's oldest networks – giving up some of their original spectrum. It would also mean, however, that the mobile phone companies would be less likely to need to buy up parts of the spectrum currently being used by analogue television, which will be freed-up once digital switchover has completed in 2012.

In turn this would allow Carter to give more of this spectrum – the so-called digital dividend – to the BBC to run digital services. The broadcaster would be allowed to sell-on any spectrum it does not need.

[VikingHumpingWitch]

I'm hampered by having no idea what a mobile phone spectrum is.

[omnipleasant]

The idea is obviously to generally spruce up and modernise Britain's telecoms infrastructure. This is a Good Thing.

[flatandy]

That's analogue TV, which is what used to be called UHF. Way, way out of the spectrum of analogue radio, which seems very long wavelength for carrying anything like the amount of info needed for multiple phone calls.

[tarrant]

Jan 29, 2009 14:46:42 GMT flatandy said:

What is the benefit to switching off analogue, exactly?

The radio spectrum is a limited quantity. Sections are allocated to different broadcasters. There are a limited number of sections.

The reason is that each Analogue broadcast uses a huge amount of the spectrum.

Digital broadcasts by contrast only use a tiny portion of the section. So, in the space on the radio spectrum that is used to broadcast Radio 1, for example, possibly several thousand digital stations could broadcast.

It's a matter of using the limited radio spectum more efficiently.

[omnipleasant]

Analogue radio is crap anyway. I mostly listen to Radio 5, and it's toss on analogue. FM is OK for me Mark Radcliffe on Radio 2 and occassional comedy prog on R4, but it's still better on digital.

[VikingHumpingWitch]

So basically this is nothing much and it's just designed to make us think things are getting better because now it's digital, you see, and that's modern and good. And cheer up about losing your job because it will take a few nanoseconds less to hunt through Monster.

Hurrah!