Italian cellcos to fund DTT interference scheme
May 5, 2013
By Colin Mann
In a similar move to the UK, Italian legislators have determined that the nation’s mobile operators should bear the cost of installing filters to help mitigate potential interference to terrestrial digital TV reception from 4G mobile phone services operating in the 800MHz band.
The Italian Council of State has approved draft proposals setting out how the operators have to solve the problem interference between 4G and digital television signals. Accordingly three of the country’s main mobile operators (Wind Telecomunicazioni, Vodafone and Telecom Italia) will have to bear the full cost of installing the filters required to fix the problem, known as Cei 100-7, on TV antennas across the country.
Interference-related complaints will be handled by telecoms and IT research body the Ugo Bordoni Foundation. Any non-compliance with the Foundation’s mandates regarding the costs of filter installations will be subject to heavy sanctions.
The ruling will come into force following publication in the Gazzetta Ufficiale della Repubblica Italiana – the official journal of record of the Italian government – and apply until the end of 2016. It states that the cost of the filters will be shared by the three operators assigned frequencies in the 800MHz band, with Wind bearing 50 per cent of total costs, and Vodafone and Telecom each responsible for 25 per cent. Wind’s greater responsibility reflects the fact that its frequencies are closest to those used by the DTT multiplexes.