Adam Gifford: Tuning in to the right frequency

Adam Gifford. Photo / Brett Phibbs

When digital television was launched at Te Papa two years ago, a curious thing happened. Most of the radio microphones in the building stopped working.

Welcome to the world of spectrum realignment, as frequencies freed up by the switch from analogue to digital television are fought over.

Refereeing the scrum is the radio spectrum management division of the Ministry of Economic Development.

According to its discussion paper, the ministry aims to allocate what's known as the UHF digital dividend spectrum in such a way that provides the maximum benefit to society.

The catch is that the ministry measures benefit to society by what people are prepared to pay. That means television broadcasters get first dibs, and anyone else has to work around the edges.

Radio mic users don't pay a fee, so the ministry says "the extent of economically sustainable demand under a contestable allocation process is unable to be evaluated". In other words, without an auction we are blind.

Its plan for the 502 to 806MHz band includes 22 licences for digital transition and analogue conversion. Freeview gets three main and three infill licences. Sky gets five main and five infill.

Kordia gets two, New Zealand Racing Board gets two for its Trackside service, and there are two unallocated.

With each licence taking up 8MHz of spectrum, that means about 60 per cent of the available UHF frequency band would be spoken for.

Stephen Buckland, the chair of the Wireless Users of New Zealand, a coalition of wireless microphone distributors and professional users, estimates there are up to 100,000 radio microphones in use by schools, churches, clubs, gyms, convention centres and the like, not to mention film and sound recording studios.

In analogue television broadcasting, the picture and sound go out on different frequencies, and the "white space" in between can be used for low-power microphones.

In digital television, sound and vision are packaged into the same data stream, and while it takes up a narrower band of spectrum, the streams can be stacked up much closer together, so there is no spare white space. That's why the Te Papa microphones stopped working. Each radio mic needs 1MHz of spectrum to work without interference.

Buckland says the Ministry proposals would only allow for about 20 radio mics to be used in any location.

The stage musical Starlight Express required 36 channels of UHF radio mics plus in-ear monitoring and communications spread over 290MHz of spectrum. The world netball championships held in Auckland in 2007 required 50 UHF mics over 184MHz.

Some of the film and television studios around Auckland could be recording two or three productions simultaneously, needing multiple mics and channels.

Buckland says there are also problems with the same spectrum bands not being available in different parts of the country. That means touring productions must retune their microphones as they move around, or carry multiple units.

Television news crews are already packing extra mics for when they have to chase breaking news in unfamiliar areas. At $1500 a system the costs mount up quickly.

Ian Hutchings from the ministry sees it as an education issue for radio mic users, who may have to upgrade their equipment or learn how to switch channels.

He says broadcasters need to have an incentive to invest in new networks, and if they don't use the frequencies they are allocated, they will go back into the pool.

Hutchings says the next step is to look at the way the television spectrum will be allocated between the players, giving a usage plan and identifying any empty spots that can be used by other technologies.

Buckland's Wireless Users group asked for allocation of exclusive or near exclusive UHF bandwidth in the 502 to 698MHz sector throughout the country. It says at least 50MHz of continuous bandwidth is needed in each location.

It also warned the ministry about trying to shift them into unfamiliar bands - New Zealand is a small market, so it's important radio mic usage is in frequency ranges covered by commonly manufactured brands.

Currently the two sides are talking, but they are still poles apart. At the moment the ministry seems to fail to recognise a public interest and coming up with policies that hamper economic activity.

Light-handed regulation failure

The debate is heating up over what Communications Minister Steven Joyce should do with the recommendation from Telecommunications Commissioner Ross Patterson to cave in to Vodafone and Telecom on regulation of the mobile phone market.

Vodafone won't release its submission to the minister. But the Telecommunications Users Association has come out against it, saying it would legitimise ongoing market distortions that mean many users carry two handsets or SIM cards.

Now economist Josephine Grierson has weighed in with a history lesson for Mr Joyce.

She points to her experience during the term of the previous National government, as a member of the Commerce Commission and an advisor on Commerce Act cases involving not just telecommunications but other network industries including gas, electricity and water.

She says the failure of a so called "light-handed" regulatory regime which favoured "industry solutions" over regulatory intervention meant new entrants had to litigate to get access to essential infrastructure or services, such as interconnection or termination services.

"This imposed a huge cost in terms of time, money and litigation risk on new entrants and the effect was to impose a dead weight loss on the New Zealand economy with a consequent loss of economic welfare."

She says by recommending an "industry solution" commissioner Patterson ignores the legislation brought in to remedy that problem, and offers something that will keep prices higher than they need to be, and leave in place a significant barrier to efficient competition.

Adamgifford5@gmail.com