Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/683118
16 16 "800 MHZ" Two different forces converged to get the FCC to reassign UHF TV spectrum. The fi rst was land mobile communica- tions, which needed even more spectrum for their needs and the second was a new service called "Cellular Tele- phones." They proposed to the FCC that the upper UHF TV channels were lightly used and could be reassigned for their purposes. The FCC ultimately agreed and effective DIGITAL TELEVISION In the 1980s, television set manufacturers started clam- oring for "digital television." Their goal was to make all of the television receivers in the United States obsolete and sell new ones to consumers. Television broadcasters pushed back because (1) none of the proposed digital tele- vision systems actually worked; (2) it was going to cost stations lots of money to convert; (3) television stations realized that they could not charge more for a commercial delivered digitally; and (4) until the majority of viewers had new digital television sets, they would have no audi- ence. It became obvious that a nationwide standard needed to be adopted. The manufacturers remembered the Beta vs. VHS debate and did not want to go through incompatible systems again. So the Advanced Television Systems Com- mittee (ATSC) was created in 1982 to take the compet- ing digital systems and create a consensus standard. Ul- timately, what is called the "Grand Alliance," developed a specifi cation for what is known today as "ATSC 1.0." This standard included standard-defi nition format (NTSC) as well as high-defi nition (HDTV) standards. HDTV allowed a widescreen 16:9 image with about six times the resolution of NTSC. The problem now was convincing the television broadcast- ers to convert to digital. In 1996, Congress authorized the distribution of an additional broadcast channel to every full-power TV station so that each station could launch a digital broadcast channel while simultaneously continu- ing analog broadcasting. Existing analog NTSC stations could have a second digital ATSC channel until enough digital receivers were in use in the United States. When this process was over, the television industry had to give up about 100 MHz of spectrum, the "700 MHz band" from Channel 52 to Channel 69. This process took a lot longer than expected partially because the new digital transmis- sion and reception technology had to be developed, new transmission systems had to be purchased and installed (at a typical station cost in the range of $1 million), and view- ers had to purchase new digital ATSC receivers. The viewers October 18, 1982, reassigned UHF TV Channels 70 (806 MHz–812 MHz) through Channel 83 (884 MHz–890 MHz) to these purposes. Because there were only a few UHF TV stations operating in these channels and there was plenty of otherwise unused UHF TV spectrum, this had little im- pact on television broadcasting. Figure 3 shows the upper channels lost to UHF TV. "T BAND" By the mid-1960s, in many major metropolitan areas, land mobile communications, both public safety and industry and business, completely fi lled the available radio spec- trum and started to pressure the FCC to make additional spectrum for their purposes. They proposed that several "unused" UHF TV channels be reassigned to land mobile communications. Finally, the FCC issued a Report and Or- der in May 1970 and in thirteen metropolitan areas, UHF TV channels were reassigned to land mobile communica- tions. Since that time, there have been many rule makings fi ne-tuning the use of UHF TV frequencies in those areas. FIGURE 3