5G mobile network logo – illustration photo.
Prague – The number of cases of DVB-T2 television signal interference by 4G or 5G mobile networks increased sevenfold to 205 complaints last year. The number of cases is increasing in connection with the growing number of mobile base stations in the 700 MHz band. This band was previously used for television broadcasting and is adjacent to frequencies still used by television. This follows from the monitoring report of the Czech Telecommunications Authority.
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“Currently, the use of the 700 MHz band by mobile networks is still in its infancy, and it can therefore be expected that with the growing number of operating base stations, the number of viewers whose television reception will temporarily be negatively affected by this phenomenon will also increase in the future. For these reasons, each the newly launched base station is operated in trial operation, in which all cases of interference must be eliminated,” the authority said.
If the operation of the mobile network negatively affects the quality of television signal reception, which the CTU will verify through a local investigation, the operator is obliged to ensure removal of harmful interference to the television viewer at his own expense.
The largest number of cases of TV signal interference, a total of 744, was caused by the viewer last year. In these cases of poor signal reception, it was usually a defect in the antenna or its incorrect setting. Malfunctions on set-top boxes also caused poor reception.
In 285 cases from last year, interference was not proven. According to the ČTÚ, the real cause of the reception problem could be the weather, which was more favorable at the time of the TV viewer's investigation than when the viewer filed the complaint. The effects of weather, especially inversions, which can fundamentally affect the quality of television reception in the short term, cannot be significantly limited or influenced.
Satellite broadcasting does not avoid problems either, when short-term outages occur in very adverse weather. In the case of Internet broadcasting, operators only record exceptional outages due to the unavailability of their own service or a slow Internet connection. “Our internal statistics for the last year show that the Internet TV broadcast offered by us worked 99.8 percent of the time without outages,” Jan Schöppel from TV operator Telly told ČTK.
