At800.tv, the body charged with making sure 4G doesn’t wipe out Freeview, has published a list of the areas which will be affected.
The launch of 4G mobile broadband services on the 800MHz spectrum band threatens to interfere with the reception of digital terrestrial TV, meaning services like YouView and BT Vision will be affected to.
To combat this, At800.tv has sent out letters and 4G signal filters to homes and addresses in the following towns and cities:
- London and areas around the M25 including Guildford, Slough and St. Albans.
- Birmingham
- Brighton
- Bristol
- Coventry
- Edinburgh
- Glasgow and Paisley
- Leeds and Bradford
- Leicester
- Manchester
- Merseyside
- Newbury
- Newcastle upon Tyne
- Nottingham
- Sheffield
- Areas and towns in Surrey, West Sussex, East Sussex and Kent
- York
Read Recombu Digital’s guide to 4G in the UK and the 4G Freeview FailBen Roome, head of marketing and communications for At800.tv told Recombu Digital that the group is doing everything it can to make sure customers TV habits aren’t compromised once 4G launches. Roome said:
“We have completed an initial mailing of postcards and proactive filters to a number of areas of the UK. We write to specific addresses in these areas and viewers could only be affected by 4G at 800MHz from at least three weeks after receiving one of our postcards at your address.”
Applying a 4G filter to the aerial means that it’ll tune out any interference caused by 4G, ensuring your TV picture and sound signals are crystal clear and unmolested. Despite early doomsday predictions, the initial live trials of 4G show that At800.tv’s signal filters have been very effective at tuning out interference.
The UK mobile networks will be launching 4G services on the 800MHz band later this summer. Note that EE, which is currently selling 4G mobile broadband plans, is currently only making use of the higher 1800MHz airwave band. This is far away enough from Freeview broadcast signals for it to have any effect.
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