Almost 200,000 households and businesses have been warned they could lose their Freeview TV signal next week, when a test is conducted to assess the impact of the roll out of 4G mobile services.
At800, the company tasked with making sure viewers can still watch TV when 4G is introduced, has sent cards warning about 170,000 premises in south-east London that their digital TV signal could be disrupted when a test is conducted on Monday.
Freeview households and businesses in parts of London's Greenwich, Lewisham, Southwark and Tower Hamlets are being asked to contact the company if they have problems with TV reception – which could include the loss of sound, picture disruption or even the loss of entire channels.
At800 has received £180m in funding from the UK's biggest mobile phone network operators to conduct tests to identify and assist Freeview TV households and businesses that will be affected when 4G is switched on at 800MHz later this year.
The London test follows a smaller pilot in the West Midlands which found fewer problems than expected.
At800 warned 22,000 homes that they might encounter TV viewing problems during the test – and expected 120 would be affected – with just 15 households calling in to report problems.
"Whilst we're pleased the first trial caused relatively few problems, it's important that larger scale trials take place to assess the full impact of 4G signals on Freeview homes and the best approach to mitigating their impact on TV reception," said a spokeswoman for Freeview.
Viewers in the test area in south-east London have been asked to contact the number on the card they were delivered if they encounter a problem on Monday.
"These tests are essential to help improve our forecast model and the way we'll tackle potential issues by 4G," said Simon Beresford-Wylie, chief executive of at800.
The number of UK households using Freeview as their main TV service is 11.1m. The number of homes with Freeview on a main or second TV set is 19.9m. There are about 27m households in the UK.
In February Ofcom ran the auction for 4G spectrum, which raised a disappointingly low £2.3bn for the treasury, with EE, O2, 3, Vodafone and BT all picking up licences to develop services.
The much-hyped auction for 3G services in 2000 made £22.5bn.
As part of their 4G licences the mobile operators were asked to provide £180m in funding, on a proportionate basis determined by the value and amount of 4G spectrum they secured in the auction, for at800.
EE has stolen a march on its rivals by utilising some of its existing spectrum to already launch 4G services.
Earlier this week the company said that it intends to double the speed of its 4G network in 10 cities this summer, offering speeds theoretically up to 80Mbps.
A spokesman for EE said that its 4G service runs on a different spectrum to the frequency that at800 is testing for TV signal disruption, and that its current service will not impact television viewing.
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