[BC] Repacking the TV band

[Jerry Mathis]

On Wed, Jun 27, 2012 at 1:53 PM, Tim Sawyer <tzsawyer at tzsawyer.com> wrote:

>When the cable is out - sat links, microwave and fiber are down and the
>world is coming to an end - what happens then?

>When John Q. Public need to know what's going on to protect life and
>property? Smartphones users with overloaded cell phone sites? I don't think
>that's a workable solution. One-to-one is NOT broadcasting.

>I've said it privately and I'll state it here - beware of this Commission's
>agenda - it has no love for broadcasters (IMHO) - TV is the target today -
>who's next?

>Personally I'd buy stock in megaphone companies and stand on the corner with
>my bullhorn - oh yeah we still have radio! Or do we?

>TZS (aka grumpy).

Tim, I agree with you and I've been saying the same thing for a long time. We are purposely destroying an infrastructure that's been built over the last century, and replacing it with basically no infrastructure at all.

It started with the telco industry. Cellphones first were available to the business community and the wealthy. Then technology evolved to where we are today, and *everyone* has a cellphone. Not that I consider that a bad thing, but the industry has not built the reliability and redundancy into the cellphone network that the wired telephone network had. In emergencies and most natural disasters, wired telephones continued to work (unless, of course, the wires were severed) during the crisis. The CO's had huge battery banks and emergency generators to keep it powered. Cell sites very often have neither of these, or if they do they are not maintained. During an emergency where utility power to these sites are lost, you can expect to lose cell phone service after a few hours.

Now, the telcos are no longer maintaining their wired networks, and have even asked for permission to do away with them. This is alarming, because the wired network is a valuable communications resource that is still widely used and depended on today. Cable TV, while also a wired service, is much less reliable due to the more fragile infrastructure it uses.

Requiring TV stations to go to a digital format has made it even harder for people to receive OTA TV. When TV was analog, you could still watch and listen to even a marginal signal. With digital, it's there, or it isn't. Great if you have a good signal, SOL if you don't.

If they force radio to go all digital, they'll be in the same boat.

We are advancing and upgrading ourselves right back into the Stone Age.

--
Jerry Mathis