Cutline Speaks

What’s more essential to you - TV or Internet?

posted by The Cutline Team on February 11, 2009

Last week, Congress pushed back the date  for TV stations to cease analog transmission of their channels from February 17 to June 12th. In case you haven't been following the transition from analog to digital TV, the U.S. is in the process of moving from a bandwidth-hogging analog system to a much more efficient and higher quality digital system. This will free up spectrum to be used for other wireless technologies.

In addition to the emergency services that are planned for the new bandwidth, wireless companies like AT&T and Verizon paid billions for the spectrum so they can implement new 4G wireless technologies. These 4G systems will support both cell phones and high-speed wireless data.  

The problem with moving the analog broadcast date back is that it will delay new 4G systems that will bring the U.S. to the leading edge of wireless technology. While Congress made the change in consideration of a small but important group of vulnerable people, they seem to be moving in the opposite direction of the bulk of their constituents. The Pew Internet Life Project released a study that found Americans rather give up TV before their cell phones or internet access: 

The data is from December of 2007, and I'm confident the importance of the Internet and cell phones continued to increase through 2008. Personally I only watch about six channels. I could give up my TV tomorrow and still find plenty of ways to watch my shows (Hulu, anyone?!). 

The people who are most affected by the switch are older generations and lower income groups. While we certainly need to make sure everyone is able to get important information from their TVs (particularly emergency news), we also have to balance that with commitments made to the wireless carriers and to the municipalities who have already spent millions on the spectrum and on preparing new services based on the spectrum's availability. This is a tough decision; however, after a $1 billion information campaign and lots of work done on the part of carriers and municipalities all over the country, it’s disappointing this commitment wasn’t met. I guess I, along with the rest of America, will have to wait a little longer for our 4G wireless access. 

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