by Daniel Sanchez

Created on: June 04, 2009   Last Updated: July 03, 2009

There are many more articles against DTV than there are for it. I'm writing for the yes side, because while I do hate corporate America, I love technology and the concept of national free broadband more.

You see, DTV isn't much better than analog TV signals, due to the need to re-acquire stations and that static is much less bearable on DTV than analog. On DTV, the feed will pixelate heavily, sound may drop, and it can freeze completely until the signal is reacquired, much like a badly scratched DVD. Analog TV, as many know, simply goes from perfect to white noise, sometimes with garbled video, sound, color, or a combination of the three.

Also, analog is much more useful to rural areas such as mine. Sacramento is a soft glow on the horizon, with tons of granite, hills, and trees to block signals. In our area, DTV is almost impossible to reach without a extremely good external antenna. Ironically, the kind used for analog TV from say, the 80's-90's, the kind that look like a few rakes taped together, are very useful for acquiring a DTV signal.

However, the bands freed up by the absence of DTV could be extremely useful. About 13 months ago, I learned that the FCC was auctioning off the freed bands under the terms that the owner must have a technology capable of giving a free, wireless broadband connection to %30 of the nation. The terms appear to have been canceled, although Verizon Wireless and AT&T bought most of the band, and they were planning to use it for LTE, a competitor in the long-range wireless network with Wi-Max. There has been talks of reallocating the signals to WiMax, however.

On the downside to this, WiMax, the technology that may be used for the connection, is know to interrupt some Wi-Fi bands, pissing off many who operate a wireless network. WiMax can run at any frequency under 66Ghz, but primarily it uses 2.3Ghz, 2.5Ghz, and 3.5Ghz. An unlisenced band also operates at 5.X Ghz. It also affects those who use TV-band radios, although they are unpopular, and amateur radio user numbers are dropping.

Despite this, DTV is a good thing, if only the signals are strengthened to support rural areas that still rely heavily on TV and radio due to the rarity of Internet connections. The FCC thinks that WiMax will be extremely useful in rural areas where hardlines are far between, and where analog TV signals are much rarer.

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