why was a federal law needed requiring the conversion to digital over analog television transmissions?

The way I have interperated the things I have heard are some facts and some "reasons" that people have told me. I have heard that the digital signal is better and can send a signal longer without all the broadcasting power used for analog.

I have also heard this frees up airwaves. I have heard that the military can use some of the airwaves for their use. I know for a fact that echostar bought rights to airwaves being freed up. I am not sure if this includes all the frequencies that TV stations have, but I do know that they have bought the rights to the airwaves that were for sale on an open bid. Echostar is the owner of dish network and a lot of other companies, like the TV guide channels. They did also get sued by TiVo and lost to them for stealing DVR technologies.(another topic) Echostar is now doing research into trying to use the airwaves so they can have up/down broadband. Right now they only have down broadband and the upoading has to go through the phone connections. That is why it takes up to an hour for you to get your movies after you order them. Usually faster though. With two way broadband they can do a whole lot more like offer internet at a realistic rate.

I have heard that the airwaves will be used as a "WiFi" connection for people everywhere. This could mean you will have your ISP anywhere the TV signals used to be. This sounds a little far fetched but I have seen some studies going that way.

Realisticly, who knows what will become of the frequencies that have opened up. Just ten years ago some of these things I mentioned would sound crasier than sending a man to the moon 100 years ago. I am looking forward to see what will happen. The Gov't should make the airwaves free to use to anyone that is not a corporation and let the American Inventors all over the country come up with the best use of what we can do today. Maybe the next Bill Gates or Alexander Grahm Bell will come of this!

The UHF channels in the 700 & 800 MHz area (ch 52-69) were sparsely used and other entities wanted additional spectrum. Also, the US decided not to use the analog HDTV that the Japanese have had running for 20 years (I saw a demo in 1984 at the NAB show in Las Vegas) and opted for a digital version (both require more bandwidth than a regular channel). The analog version was amazing, so it was clear that eventually consumers would demand HDTV technology.

So, to allow the new HDTV channels to broadcast, many local channels would have to change frequencies to do that. Since the channels were going to change anyway, the FCC "encouraged" it by moving everyone out of the 700 & 800 MHz band; they are selling off the spectrum now and making money for the gov't, though some is reserved for emergency responders (especially in the 800 MHz band). Moving costs money, so the stations have been given additional digital channels that they can program and sell time on to help offset their expenses. They may or may not recoup their investments...

Additionally, it was initially thought by some in gov't (back in the early 1980's) that the USA could revitalize the TV industry by switching to their own digital standard instead of using the Japanese analog standard. Of course, the gov't types were clueless and the field is still dominated by Asian companies, so we wasted 20 years waiting for HDTV.

So --

the gov't cleans up the 800 MHz space for emergency responders

the gov't makes money selling the 700 MHz spectrum

TV stations get additional channels they can sell commercials on (and make money to pay more taxes to the gov't)

businesses get additional broadcast spectrum for new wireless devices (to make money and pay more taxes to the gov't)

Asian electronics companies still eat our lunch building consumer electronics (and pay more taxes to the gov't for selling most of us new HDTV's)

...and you get a great picture, even with a gov't subsidized converter box.

The gov't wins, businesses win, and you get the bill, as usual. Hope you're not surprised...

The FCC was set up in 1934 to regulate transmissions through the air waves. At that time, radio (and subequently television) was pretty basic. As technology got better and more applications could be developed, band-aid fixes to handle them were needed. A lot of transmission standards today are a hodge-podge of old rules that were valid 50 years ago, but actually hinder new technology today.

I've been involved for the last 30 years in the development of HDTV and, let's face it, it's just not all that impressive. New, yes, slightly better, yes, but impressive? Not worth all the effort it took to change everything.

But the digital transmissions? THAT'S impressive. And as long as we're at it, let's revamp some of the limitations that are going on nearly 100 years old. Since the FCC is responsible, and has the authority, to establish a uniform braodcast standard, it's easier and cheaper to maintain one new standard than keep on trying to adapt several old standards to they don't interfere with each other.

A lot of the consumer frequencies that you take for granted were never meant for you to use. It just didn't cause enough problems for the government to allow you to use them. Garage door openers are one example. But you ARE only allowed to use them; they don't belong to the common public however anyone chooses to use it.

By revamping the transmission standards used by big power industries, it also allows consumers to continue using low power devices that they've taken for granted.

Sorry I don't have an answer for you but I was wondering the same thing. Seems pretty silly to make it a law, doesn't it?