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To: John Rieman who wrote (42552)	7/1/1999 6:03:00 PM
From: BillyG	Respond to of 50808

Channel allocation delays digital-TV rollout in Japan eetimes.com By Yoshiko Hara EE Times (07/01/99, 4:51 p.m. EDT) TOKYO — The completion of channel-allocation plans for terrestrial digital TV broadcasting in Japan has been delayed by about 10 months, but the kickoff of limited test digital TV broadcasting remains on schedule, the country's Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications (MPT) announced. With available channels already limited in Japan, securing sufficient broadcast bandwidth is one of most nettlesome aspects of the digitization of terrestrial TV. Originally, the MPT wanted to complete the channel plan by June and then recommend the plan to the Radio Regulatory Council this month, but broadcasters balked at the tight schedule. Now completion is not expected until April, by which time channel planning for key stations is expected to be wrapped up. An MPT official admitted that "channel planning is behind schedule" and that "it will take some more time to make a frequency-allocation plan." An industry source close to the nation's broadcasters hailed the revised plan as more practical than the initial schedule. The telecom ministry announced guidelines in November for the DFT broadcast shift, calling for the start of experimental broadcasting in 2000 in the Kanto district, which includes Tokyo. The guidelines called for the start of regular broadcasts in 2003 in three large cities: Tokyo, Osaka and Nagoya. Full-scale deployment is to be finished by 2006. The MPT official acknowledged that it would have been difficult to commence experimental broadcasts by next fall if completion of nationwide channel planning had been mandated before such broadcasts could begin. But test broadcasts can start on time in limited areas, provided channel allocation is completed in those areas first, he said. The source close to the broadcasters agreed that limited broadcasts could begin once the channels for key stations in Tokyo are allocated. As channel distribution is hashed out, another critical issue remains unresolved: who will bear the cost of shifting certain analog channels to higher bands. Japan's digital TV broadcasts will use the lower UHF bands, some of which are already used for analog broadcasting in some areas. Those analog channels must be moved to higher UHF bands, a process that will require channels to be reset in the TV receivers themselves, as well as replacement of old antennas in some areas with ones that can accommodate wider-band reception. An estimated 10 million out of a total of 45 million households will be affected by the shift in bands, at a total cost that MPT estimates will range anywhere from $400 million to $870 million. The Japan National Association of Commercial Broadcasters, which counts 197 member companies on its roster, estimates that about one-sixth of Japan's households — 7.64 million — will have to undertake some measures for moving analog channels to higher UHF bands. The total cost for that process is estimated at $1.2 billion. Who will pay it has yet to be decided.