Hong Kong, September 3, 2008 – Reports of critical interference with TV broadcasts by broadband wireless systems in the satellite C-band frequency are on the rise.
The most recent example, in Bahrain in the Middle East, tells a tale of hundreds of consumers – largely expatriates watching Indian-originated satellite TV via large C-band receiver dishes – finding their service cut off as wireless operators power up newly-licensed Wimax systems.
Bahrain ignored repeated protests from broadcasters and satellite service suppliers at last year’s ITU World Radio Conference, who forecast that unrestricted Wimax systems operating in C-band would result in millions of disaffected consumers.
Bahraini officials admitted that the domestic TV signals had been disrupted because local telecom operators are broadcasting broadband wireless Internet services over the same frequency as TV channels.
“Wherever the telephone company installs a tower, people living a couple of hundred metres in its vicinity will experience interference with their broadcast,” said an industry insider quoted in the Gulf Daily News. (The full story can be found here)
For more than two years the global satellite industry has urged regulators to license alternative frequencies to C-band for Wimax, particularly recommending the lower-frequency and more efficient “S-band”.
While many Asian countries heeded the warnings, others, including Pakistan, Australia, the Philippines, Indonesia and Fiji, have licensed inappropriate frequencies, and interference reports are rising sharply as licensed and unlicensed telecom operators fire-up Wimax systems.
“Bahrain and other markets such as Pakistan, where broadcasts have been disrupted by unrestricted Wimax deployment, are the equivalent of the canary down the mine shaft, said Simon Twiston Davies, CEO of the Cable & Satellite Broadcasting Association of Asia (CASBAA). He added, “This is already a big problem and will grow much larger unless industry and consumers can make their voices heard.”
“Action needs to be taken now, when licensing is still at an early stage and the situation can be saved”, he said. “By the time the consumers lose their TV signals, it’s too late.”
“Few satellite dishes in Asia are directly licensed,” said John Medeiros, CASBAA’s Deputy CEO. “The fact is that the regulating agencies take insufficient account of the consumers served by large domestic dishes and the need for technically perfect reception by cable operators.”
According to CASBAA and other professional bodies, the implications of disrupted C-band distribution of TV signals are massive since C-band transmissions reach not only individual homes – such as those in Bahrain – but also deliver wholesale television to cable systems serving hundreds of millions of customers.
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About CASBAA – www.casbaa.com
The Cable & Satellite Broadcasting Association of Asia (CASBAA) is an industry-based advocacy group dedicated to the promotion of multi-channel TV via cable, satellite, broadband and wireless video networks across the Asia-Pacific. CASBAA represents some 130 member organisations in the pay-TV business, which in turn serve more than three billion people. Patron members include Asia Broadcast Satellite, AsiaSat, ASTRO, Australia Network, Bloomberg Television, Chunghwa Telecom, Discovery Networks Asia, Disney-ABC International Television, Genesis Networks, Granada International/ITV Worldwide, HBO Asia, Intelsat, Lionsgate, Macquarie Group, MediaFLO Technologies, Motorola, MTV Networks Asia Pacific, NDS, Nokia, now TV, PricewaterhouseCoopers, SES NEW SKIES, SingTel, Sony Pictures Television International, STAR Group, TrueVisions, Turner International Asia Pacific and VOOM HD Networks Asia. To view the full list of CASBAA members, please visit here.
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CASBAA
Helen Shek/ Carmen Mak
Tel: +852 2854 9943
Fax: +852 2854 9530
Email: pr@casbaa.com