+
CONSUMER
PLAYING SOON: The broadcast of
video programs to PDAs and cellphones may be one new service to
use the communications spectrum made available by the termination of analog TV broadcasting.
26 IEEE Spectrum | October 2005 | NA
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THE END OF ANALOG TELEVISION IS AT HAND. Pundits have
predicted the death of analog before, but such forecasts were couched in
caveats. Now governments are setting firm dates and planning for life after
analog, when vast amounts of bandwidth will become available for new uses
and the broadcast TV scene will change.
Around the world, governments have begun the analog shutdown, and it will
accelerate rapidly during the next five years. In Germany, Berlin killed off analog
in 2003, Munich did it this year [see photo, “Getting Ready”], and the rest of the
nation is scheduled to follow suit by 2010. In the United States, Congress likely
will legislate January 2009 as the shutoff date. The end-of-analog date in France
is 2010. In Japan, it’s 2011. The United Kingdom, which turned off analog broadcasts in one Welsh community this year as an experiment, is slated to phase out
analog completely by the end of 2012.
After analog television is phased out, digital over-the-air transmission will be
the only game in town for those receiving free TV signals through antennas.
If television comes to you by cable or satellite, you won’t notice a thing.
Satellite television is already digital, and so is much of cable. But eventually
you will reap diverse rewards that you might not even connect to changes in
TV broadcasting: better cellphone reception, opportunities to download video
to your cellphone [see illustration, “Playing Soon”], and mobile broadband
Internet. And, in the United States, you might see a modest dip in the federal
The Dawn of DIGITAL TV
Y CHANNEL
INSET: DISCOVER
I SILBERMAN;
PHOT0: RAND
Analog television prepares to meet its doom, vacating valuable real estate
in the radio spectrum—and the band rush begins BY ROBERT M. RAST
www.spectrum.ieee.org
budget deficit when the government sells off 108 megahertz of the old analog broadcast spectrum for as much as US $50 billion, by some estimates.
If you do rely on broadcast television, you’ll notice the changes even
sooner. The first one might be a little painful: you’ll need a new TV set or,
at minimum, a new tuner costing at least $100 [see sidebar, “Countdown to
the End”]. With a new high-definition set, you’ll see a big improvement in
the TV picture. Most digital programming is broadcast in HD, which brings
the crisp, detailed images so prized by sports fans (who are determined never
to lose sight of the ball or puck) and feared by news anchors (who know that
viewers can see every bit of makeup they plaster on). Along with those sharp
pictures comes digital surround sound—if you add the speakers.
In some countries, mainly in Europe, broadcasters have no plans for terrestrial broadcast of high-definition television. Nevertheless, digital broadcasting should bring other potential benefits. Some broadcasters may send out
multiple standard-definition channels, perhaps “narrowcasting” shows to niche
audiences or providing supplementary material, such as an interactive experience, with regular shows.
IN ANY MASSIVE TECHNOLOGY CHANGE, particularly one with so much
money at stake, there are winners and losers. I’ll get to those. But first, to understand why this enormously valuable part of the spectrum will soon be up for
grabs in an unprecedented high-tech rush, we have to go back to the late 1990s.
The United States was the first country to broadcast digital TV, in 1998, and
its mechanism was basically followed by other countries in their own systems.
So the U.S. experience is illustrative.
In the late 1990s, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) loaned each
TV broadcaster a second channel in the existing broadcast bands, 54 through
October 2005 | IEEE Spectrum | NA 27
28 IEEE Spectrum | October 2005 | NA
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JAN PITMAN/GETTY IMAGES
806 MHz. Interspersed among the broadcast channels are some specThanks to such advantages, the cellular phone companies are
trum gaps that minimize interference between them. To further min- likely to compete hard for this valuable bandwidth. Exactly what
imize interference, the FCC skipped certain channels in a geographic they would do with it is a closely guarded secret, at least until winregion; for example, if channel 4 is assigned in one metropolitan area, ning bidders are selected. Nevertheless, it’s not hard to imagine the
the nearest channel 3 broadcaster is in a different metropolitan winners launching third-generation services, including mobile video
area. The skipped channels are known as taboo channels.
and wide-band Internet access, which would enable cellphone users
Each channel occupies 6 MHz, and that hasn’t changed. Rather, to receive video programming and e-mail on the run.
because digital transmission is less interfering and also less subject
The FCC’s huge menu of allowable uses for the new freto interference, and because digital channels operate at lower power quencies identifies “[f]lexible fixed, mobile, and broadcast uses,
levels than their analog counterparts, the FCC assigned second chan- including mobile and other digital new broadcast operations;
nels into analog taboo channels. The FCC deemed the modest increase fixed and mobile wireless commercial services, as well as fixed
in the overall level of interference acceptable during the transition. and mobile wireless uses for private, internal radio needs. Could
At the time of the bandwidth loan, Congress set year-end 2006 also include two-way interactive, cellular, and mobile television
as the date when analog service would officially cease and the extra broadcasting services.”
channels would be “returned.” At that point, the
PERHAPS THE BEST EARLY INDICATORS of
digital channels, with their low interference charwhat will happen with the freed-up bandwidth
acteristics, could be repacked into less bandGETTING READY:
are recent events in Berlin—the first city to turn
width—a swath between 54 and 698 MHz. The
A new antenna for
digital TV transmission
off analog television—and in the United States,
move would free 108 MHz of spectrum—the upper
was helicoptered into
where a couple of preemptive auctions gave
end of the UHF band, or TV channels 52 to 69—
place in Munich,
developers access to segments of spectrum on
for other uses. To put the potential value of that
Germany, last April.
the condition that they not interfere with broad108 MHz in perspective, note that the entire AM
casters still using them.
radio spectrum is less than 1.2 MHz. All local area
The “Berlin Switch” is an intriguing novelty.
networks using IEEE 802.11b and 802.11g, the most
It was possible because the region affected is
common forms of Wi-Fi, occupy just 83.5 MHz.
relatively small, with 1.8 million households in
Congress looked forward to a lucrative spectrum
the TV market, and because an overwhelming
auction to help balance the federal budget.
number of those households—all but 160 000—
The 2006 date, however, came with a caveat:
subscribe to cable or satellite television. Nonon a market-by-market basis, at least 85 persubscribers each coughed up at least $200 to buy
cent of households would have to own at least
a set-top converter, and for less than $1 million,
one television that could receive digital signals.
the government subsidized the purchase for famIt has been clear for months that the 85 perilies on welfare.
cent criterion will not be met next year, so the
What the switch gave Berliners, mainly, was
U.S. plan will be delayed [see sidebar, “Countdown
an increase in the number of broadcast stations—
to the End”]. But for how long? Now, many of the
from 12 to 27. Multiplexing allows four digital chanaffected players—consumer electronics and comnels to fit in the space previously allotted to a
puter manufacturers, along with communications
single analog channel. (This excludes HD broadand other companies interested in using the recapcasts, because they require more bandwidth.) The
tured spectrum—do not want a “soft date.”
switch also gave the government 35 MHz to use—
Instead, they have been agitating for a hard one,
or sell—for new services.
with no further chance of delay.
With more channels, viewers of broadcast teleAlthough Congress has yet to pass legislation to set such a date, both the House of Representatives and vision in Berlin have access to niche programming and channels prethe Senate seemed in late summer 2005 to be converging on 1 Jan- viously available only to cable or satellite subscribers. Programming
now includes Eurosport; Arte, with art movies, documentaries, poetry,
uary 2009.
Shortly before any hard date, the band rush will begin. Congress, and theater; Phoenix, with political news; Viva II, with pop culture
eager for the money, is pushing the FCC to start the auctions as for people in their 20s; and several new local channels.
In the United States, in 2001 and 2002, the FCC auctioned off four
soon as possible. The Congressional Budget Office is advising that
the auctions be delayed until after other, unrelated spectrum auc- small slices of spectrum totaling 6 MHz in the 746- to 806-MHz
tions are completed. Spreading them out will prevent a sudden glut range, the upper 700-MHz band, that had been allocated as “guard
of bandwidth, thus optimizing returns. Auction winners would bands.” Along with the right to use the spectrum came tight rules
require a year or two to gather the money they’d need to invest in to minimize interference with public-safety services. This RF real
developing their newly acquired spectrum segments. So for them, estate is intended for the rental market: the buyers will act as landif bandwidth is to become available at the end of 2008, auctions in lords, leasing the spectrum to third parties. The FCC packaged the
spectrum in two pieces for 52 market areas, creating 104 licenses,
late 2006 or early 2007 would be ideal.
which were auctioned for $540 million. The top three winners were
“BEACHFRONT SPECTRUM” is what analysts are calling that soon- Access Spectrum, Nextel, and Pegasus Communications.
to-be-auctioned upper 108 MHz, because it is ideal for cellular servAccess Spectrum LLC, in Bethesda, Md., winner of 21 licenses,
ices. Signals at those frequencies propagate farther and penetrate announced at the time that it had begun negotiating rental agreebuildings better than signals in today’s cellular bands, which go up ments. In addition, Access, formed in 2000, is likely to build private
to 1.9 gigahertz. Best of all, cellphone system operators expect wireless networks for businesses in some of its bands.
infrastructure costs to be reduced by 90 percent, because fewer cells
Plans of the other winners are murkier. Nextel is using its
will be required, given the longer distances signals will travel.
40 licenses as bargaining chips and recently agreed to return them
to the FCC as part of a deal involving interference reduction in the
800-MHz band. Pegasus won 34 of the 104 licenses but has been quiet
about its plans. The largest independent provider of the DirecTV
satellite service, Pegasus is having financial problems, and some of
its subsidiaries filed Chapter 11 bankruptcies in 2004.
Then, in 2002 and 2003, the FCC auctioned off 18 MHz between
698 and 746 MHz, which covers three UHF channels, 54, 55, and 59.
Again the spectrum was packaged into geographical pieces, both to
be attractive to buyers and to maximize returns. Channel 55 was sold
in six regional chunks, while 54 and 59 were sold as a pair in 734 markets. Altogether the sales brought the U.S. government $145 million.
Qualcomm Inc., of San Diego, won the auction for the spectrum
previously occupied by channel 55 in five of the six auctions. It then
bought the rights for the sixth region from Aloha Partners LP, of
Providence, R.I. Aloha was formed to provide wireless broadband
service and has been a big player in the auctions so far.
Qualcomm intends to use its spectrum to send video and audio
programming to cellphones, PDAs, and other portable devices nationwide. It hasn’t announced what it intends to broadcast, but the content could include hit TV shows, clips of sporting events, and movie
trailers. The company calls its service MediaFLO (“Media” plus
“Forward Link Only”). Qualcomm plans to store video in the handsets to supplement video streamed live; that way, it hopes to eliminate the dropouts endemic to cellphone reception. If a voice signal
drops out temporarily, you can just say, “What?” Video signal
dropouts, however, cause annoying freezes, jerks, or blanks in the
picture, and would discourage users.
Qualcomm is developing MediaFLO as a way to promote CDMA
cellphone technology, which it pioneered. CDMA is winning out
over the TDMA standard (popular in the United States) and is
emerging as a strong competitor to GSM (popular in Europe). Today,
CDMA is used in 35 countries, including the United States and
South Korea. Qualcomm plans to integrate MediaFLO into its chip
sets and to offer the service through partnerships with cellphone
operators. It may eventually spin it off as a separate company.
Technology alternatives to MediaFLO are available and could be
used for competing services in spectrum bands yet to be auctioned.
One example is a variant of the Digital Video Broadcasting standard
widely adopted in Australia, Europe, India, and elsewhere. The variant, called DVB-H, provides TV broadcasts to handheld devices and,
like MediaFLO, is being used in the 700-MHz band. In South Korea,
yet another standard for TV broadcasting to handhelds is being
deployed—Terrestrial Digital Multimedia Broadcasting, or T-DMB—
and it may emerge as a competitor in the United States.
HAVE YOU EVER FOUND YOURSELF ON A TRAIN, in a park, or
at a ball game wishing you could pay a bill you’d forgotten about, or
send a quick message, or download a tune stuck in your mind?
According to Aloha, there are enough people who want to be “always
on” to support a nationwide mobile broadband Internet service. The
company, which resold its channel 55 spectrum to Qualcomm, was
the big victor in the 54/59 channel-pair auctions. Aloha won 125 out
of the 734 regional auctions and increased its holdings by buying the
other two big winners. Aloha claims it now has spectrum in 244 of
the 734 licensed markets, covering 175 million potential customers,
including 100 percent coverage in the nation’s 10 largest markets and
84 percent coverage in the top 40 markets.
Though not revealing which technologies it will deploy, Aloha did
announce last year that it would launch a 2005 market trial of mobile
broadband Internet access using Flash-OFDM (orthogonal frequencydivision multiplexing). Developed by Flarion Technologies Inc., in
Bedminster, N.J., Flash-OFDM is a spread-spectrum technology that
uses the Internet Protocol. Signals jump quickly from frequency to
frequency within a given channel in a seemingly random pattern generated by an algorithm. The resulting signal causes minimal interference with those in the same and neighboring channels and is itself not
easily interfered with. Different base stations use different hopping
patterns, further reducing interference and allowing the bandwidth
to be used efficiently. The FCC recently granted Aloha permission
to run a market test in Tucson, Ariz., presumably of Flash-OFDM.
THE FCC AUCTION PLAN
THE UPPER 700
The spectrum band from 746 to 806 MHz
is organized into four auction blocks, each with
paired channels, plus 24 MHz reserved for public
safety. Blocks A and B, designated as guard
bands, were auctioned in 2001 and 2002.
THE LOWER 700
The spectrum band from 698 to 746 MHz
is organized into five auction blocks, three
with paired channels (A, B, and C), two as
single channel blocks (D and E). Blocks C and
D were auctioned in 2002 and 2003.
BRYAN CHRISTIE
www.spectrum.ieee.org
October 2005 | IEEE Spectrum | NA 29
COUNTDOWN
TO THE END
BY LYNN CLAUDY
BY MID-2005, terrestrial digital
television service was supposed to
be commonplace—not just in the
United States, where the government had hoped to pull the plug on
analog broadcast television at the
end of 2006, but around the world.
Today, however, people in barely
1 percent of the world’s more than
1 billion television-owning homes
can watch digital television over the
air. Far more, but by no means a
majority, pay to receive digital signals via cable or satellite, so some
form of digital television is seen in
about 280 million households.
The pace of digital broadcast
television’s acceptance varies. In
Two auctions held so far accounted for just 24 MHz of the
108 MHz that will eventually be sold. Of the 84 MHz remaining,
in 1997 the FCC reserved 24 MHz for public-safety communications, such as police and fire services—those located at four of
today’s UHF TV channels, 63, 64, 68, and 69. Since the 9/11 attacks
on the United States, Congress has been paying a lot of attention
to the public-safety communications plan, originally with little
fanfare. In fact, congressional eagerness to reallocate the swath of
spectrum is the main impetus behind a drive to set a firm date
for the transition to digital television. The Save Lives Act of 2005,
introduced in the Senate in June, calls for expediting the reassignment of the spectrum for public-safety purposes and requires
spectrum to be taken back from broadcasters by 1 January 2009.
Although Congress is driving the agenda to free portions of
spectrum for public-safety use, local governments will decide how
they will be used. Metropolitan-area governments, for example,
would like to alleviate the congestion that plagues existing emergency services. They are concerned with voice and text transmission, already in use, and are looking to add wideband transmission
of images. On-the-scene images can help emergency responders
and their dispatchers. With broadband access to stored records,
fire or police teams could review building plans and blueprints.
After the auctions held so far and the allocation for emergency services, 60 MHz of the bandwidth to be vacated by analog television remains to be sold [see illustration, “The FCC
Auction Plan”]. This section, consisting of channels 52, 53, 56 to
58, 60 to 62, and 65 to 67, is slated to be divided into five blocks.
Four of the five will be channel pairs: 52 and 57, 53 and 58, a pair
of 5-MHz channels in 60 and 65, and a pair of 10-MHz channels in 61 to 62 and 66 to 67. Channel pairs can best be used for
30 IEEE Spectrum | October 2005 | NA
the United Kingdom, for example,
more than 20 percent of 25 million
TV-viewing households can watch
terrestrial digital broadcasts on
at least one TV set. In Japan,
where digital broadcasts began in
December 2003, around 5 million
digital receivers have been shipped
to stores, and consumers are installing them in that country’s
40million-plus households with TVs.
Although the United States
launched terrestrial digital broadcasts early, in 1998, less than 5 percent of its 103 million households
were equipped to receive them at
the end of last year. But the technology is gaining momentum, thanks
in large part to government mandates for set design: TVs in nearly
15 percent of U.S. households will
handle digital broadcasts by the end
of 2005, and those in nearly 40 percent by the end of 2006, according to the Consumer Electronics
Association, in Arlington, Va., which
represents manufacturers.
The nation will fall far short,
however, of its government’s eightyear target for turning off analog
broadcasts—which was based on
a goal of at least 85 percent of consumers’ being able to watch digital
broadcasts in their homes.
So what went wrong?
FIRST, THE PLANS MADE in 1998,
when digital television was introduced in the United States, were
unrealistic. In 1961, eight years after
the standard for color television was
set, only 1 percent of households
owned color TVs. The penetration
rate for digital TV would have had
to far surpass that of any other new
mass-market technology to come
close to the 85 percent goal in the
eight years from 1998 to 2006.
Second, the Federal Communications Commission initially set up
an implementation schedule only for
broadcast TV stations, reasoning
that availability of digital broadcasts
alone would be enough to bring
along TV manufacturers, cable system operators, and consumers.
That did not happen, at least in part
because about 65 percent of the
services that require the same capacity in each direction, like
today’s cellphone services.
The fifth block will consist of today’s channel 56, which is better
suited for one-way transmission, such as broadcasting to cellphones.
It could also be used for services that can utilize an existing cellphone channel as the return path—for example, video on demand,
in which your request is phoned in and then the material is sent to
your cellphone over the broadband channel. The FCC plans to offer
the blocks in six regional areas, making it simpler for well-funded companies planning to roll out national services to assemble bandwidth.
The sale of the five blocks will complete the reallocation. The oftquoted $50 billion valuation for the 108 MHz may be too high, given
that the first 24 MHz sold netted $685 million and that the 24-MHz
public-safety spectrum won’t be sold at all. The $50 billion number
comes from a May 2004 estimate by the New America Foundation, a
Washington, D.C.–based public policy institute, citing FCC and other
data. On the other hand, it is possible that the chunks of spectrum
auctioned in the first two rounds went cheap because buyers didn’t
know when they would actually get them.
If a firm date is set and the auctions for the remaining spectrum
sections are held not too far ahead of that date, the auctions of the
remaining 60 MHz could bring the total raised up to $30 billion.
Congress is expected to require that a portion of those proceeds,
probably less than $5 billion, be used to fund subsidies to help lowincome families convert their analog TV sets to digital.
WHENEVER SO MUCH MONEY and infrastructure are at stake,
there are inevitably winners and losers. The companies bringing in
the bids at the auctions appear initially to be winners, but some of
their ventures are bound to fail.
www.spectrum.ieee.org
DIELECTRIC COMMUNICATIONS
ON THE AIR: This candelabra-style
tower began broadcasting digital
television in Jacksonville, Fla., in 2002.
U.S. public receives TV programming
via cable; the majority of viewers
would be unaffected by changes in
over-the-air broadcasting.
Also, in its first few years, digital
television was plagued by uncertainty that left consumers wary about
switching. Some wondered about
the solidity of the digital TV technical
broadcast standard, adopted in 1996.
Many were also confused about digital TV products and their performance and capabilities; inconsistent
availability of digital programming;
and the number of stations on the
air. Also, digital sets were expensive.
Today, most of the issues have been
resolved or at least minimized.
The four major commercial U.S.
networks now broadcast almost all
prime-time programs, as well as
major sports and other high-profile
events, in high definition. For drama,
movies, and sports, production in
high definition is the norm.
Also, competition has cut the cost
of digital TV—high-definition sets
with built-in digital tuners sell for less
than US $1000, although prices
quickly climb for large screen sizes
or flat-panel displays. Digital con-
verters for analog TV sets, however,
are still somewhat pricey, running
$200 and up, although prices are
expected to fall to under $100 in the
next few years.
ANOTHER SIGN of the coming of
digital television is that today more
than 1500 broadcast digital-TV stations are on the air. Nearly the
entire U.S. population lives in markets with at least one digital broadcast signal available, and more
than 90 percent live in areas with
five or more such signals.
Meanwhile, the FCC’s 2002 mandate that TV makers incorporate
digital broadcast tuners in all new
sets is having its effect. The FCC
requirement started with the largest
screens. As of 1 July 2005, all sets
for sale in the United States with
screen diagonals of at least 36 inches
must have built-in digital tuners. By
July 2007, all sets with screen diagonals of at least 13 inches must be digitally compatible.
In late 2003, the FCC set a technical standard for cable transmission of digital TV signals and defined
what constitutes a digital cable-ready
Manufacturers will be huge winners. New services and technologies necessitate new equipment. Sales of televisions, studio gear, and
other consumer and professional equipment are already growing. Still
to come are business opportunities opened by new mobile services.
Broadcasters should be winners. By upgrading their technological backbones, they have improved their quality of service and now
have the flexibility to pursue new opportunities such as narrowcasting to niche markets. However, while broadcasters have invested
heavily in the digital transition, they have not yet fully exploited
digital’s advantages of higher-definition pictures and new services.
Broadcasters have two strategic advantages over cable and satellite providers. For one, local broadcast stations know their markets in a way no national programmer can. For another, broadcast
television is wireless and eminently portable; viewers don’t have
to plug into the cable network or to a carefully aligned satellite
dish. They don’t even have to find small hot spots, since receivers
pick up broadcast signals almost anywhere. But broadcasters are
only now starting to use HDTV in their local programming, primarily for news. And U.S. digital service does not support mobile
service to vehicles and pedestrians with handheld devices. It is
telling that reassigned broadcast spectrum is being used to offer
mobile video services that broadcasters themselves are unable to
support. Nor is this now a priority for them.
Political leaders might be losers, if they are perceived as forcing
unwanted change and expense on the public. And if the transition
is disruptive, they will be blamed. But overall, governments should
be big winners. When the transition is completed, governments will
have served their constituencies well by shifting broadcast television
to a superior, more flexible service and by reallocating vacated broadcast spectrum to other useful services.
www.spectrum.ieee.org
TV set—a major milestone. To be
designated Digital Cable Ready, a
set must include a terrestrial-broadcast digital tuner, as well as a slot for
a smart card. The subscriber’s cable
service provides the card, which is
used in place of a set-top box to
descramble the cable signal. With
the card alone, however, cable-ready
digital television sets can receive
only basic and premium program
channels; features such as video
on demand require the set-top box.
Satellite TV service, digital since
its inception, is also helping develop
an audience for digital broadcast
programs. And a cluster of consumer
electronics innovations are combining to stoke interest. One of the
most prominent, flat-screen displays—luxury items a few years
ago—are now becoming ubiquitous.
They draw consumers to the larger
screen sizes, which show off digital television’s high-definition capabilities without eating up all the floor
space in a living room.
Widespread popularity of DVDs
has also had an effect. Although not
yet equal to high-definition television in resolution, a DVD viewed
on a high-definition digital set is
noticeably clearer than one viewed
on its analog counterpart. Also, DVDs
include content that fits the widescreen format of high-definition TV
well, and the new sets can produce
full 5.1-channel surround sound.
More recently, the availability
of high-definition personal video recorders became a factor. And highdefinition DVD players, due in stores
before the year’s end, could provide
yet another sales boost. Add a comprehensive market-promotion plan
aimed at consumers, and terrestrial
digital TV broadcast service could
be like a rolling snowball that will
grow rapidly in the years ahead,
bringing with it compelling and innovative digital services and an end
to analog television.
■
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
LYNN CLAUDY is senior vice president of science and technology
for the National Association of
Broadcasters, in Washington, D.C.
The NAB is the leading trade
association for commercial radio
and TV broadcast stations in the
United States.
In the short term, some consumers, particularly the least welloff, will be losers. They will see blank, snowy screens on their
antenna-fed analog TVs when analog service is terminated. To continue receiving programming, they will need to buy and install digital conversion set-top boxes or switch to cable or satellite service.
Either way, it’s going to cost them.
In the end, though, consumers will be winners, with new and
improved services available. They will have access to HDTV’s
great pictures, accompanied by surround-sound audio. They will
have uniformly high-quality reception anywhere in a broadcast
area, and additional services will include some within traditional
broadcast channels but even more coming in the auctioned broad■
cast spectrum.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
ROBERT M. RAST (IEEE Senior Member) is industry liaison for
Micronas Semiconductors Holding AG and chairman of the board
of the Advanced Television Systems Committee, an international
standards-setting body. In the 1990s, he was General Instrument
Corp.’s digital HDTV advocate, and in 1993 he became one of the
leaders of the newly formed Digital HDTV Grand Alliance.
TO PROBE FURTHER
More information about the analog shutoff and spectrum auctions is
available at http://www.fcc.gov.
To learn more about Qualcomm’s MediaFLO technology, go to
http://www.qualcomm.com/mediaflo.
Flash-OFDM technology is described at http://www.flarion.com/
products/flash_ofdm.asp.
Read about DVB-H technology at http://www.dvb.org.
October 2005 | IEEE Spectrum | NA
31