[BITList] Analogue TV IN Australia

[John Feltham]

Sometime tomorrow someone will flick a switch, and analogue TV transmission in Australia will cease, 57 years after it started. The change-over took place faultlessly.
 
Analogue has already disappeared from much of Australia. The Mildura region in northern Victoria and southern NSW was the first to switch off, in June 2010.
 
Most of the rest of Australia has followed over the last three years. The signals were switched off in Brisbane in May and in Sydney last week. Melbourne and most of outback Australia follows tomorrow, then analogue is gone. Australian TV will be totally digital.
 
The end of analogue frees up a significant part of the electromagnetic spectrum for use by digital transmission. Most of this will be used for expanded 4G mobile phone coverage. The Government has already run an auction to licence this spectrum to Australian mobile phone carriers.
 
Telstra and Optus were the successful bidders third carrier Vodafone did not take part in the auction. Some was sold to TPG, leading to speculation that it may also have ambitions to become a mobile carrier.
 
It is hard to fault the way Australia handled the switch from analogue to TV. The program was extremely well planned and executed, with very few problems. The planning started in 1993, and transmission began in 2001. The Government ran a number of programs to help people switch to digital (see www.digitalready.gov.au).
 
Digital TV has brought many advantages higher resolution, more channels, and more efficient use of the spectrum. The changeover occurred at the same time that TV technology moved from cathode ray tubes to flat screens LCD and plasma and has led to a boom in sales.
 
But now, with most new TVs capable of being connected to the Internet, a new revolution is happening. Broadcast TV is being challenged by the various types of Internet TV IPTV, streaming, downloading. It is now but one of many media for video content.
 
 
 
But, theres always one of those. The country is now divided over the NBN. Most people will not be able to access the items mentioned the last paragraph as they will not have access to the fast speeds required .
 
The previous Government started the NBN with FTTH [fibre to the home]. The technology uses optical fibre from "Whoa to Go".
 
There has been a change in Government and they want FTTN [fibre to the node] This technology only uses optical fibre to a box that can be some way from the house and from there is uses the old copper telephone wires that in a lot of cases is not up to standards required for the 21st Century.
 
 
ooroo

"Blessed are the cracked, for they let in the light."
Spike Milligan




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