Helplines congested as Finland switches over to digital TV

[BGonaSTICK]

Finland switched off its analogue TV transmitters on Saturday, and thus becomes the second European coutry after the Netherlands to switch over completely to digital terrestrial TV (DTT). But, according to Helsingin Sanomat, a debate continues on whether or not the old analogue frequencies should be reserved for television and radio services, or whether part of them should be allocated to mobile phones.

Helsingin Sanomat says the introduction of digital television brought congestion to all the telephone lines to the national service centre of Digita Oy, the leading Finnish distributor of radio and television services. ”Even though we were prepared for a large number of calls, the day was busier than we had been able to anticipate”, said Project Manager Riitta Kontula from Digita.

On Saturday, says the newspaper, Digita informed the viewers of disturbances which occasionally occurred on the channels of the national public broadcaster YLE. ”The image appears to freeze from time to time”, said Director Timo Kiiskinen from Digita. The disturbance is difficult to spot, as it occurs just occasionally and only on some receivers. Efforts will be made to fix the defect in the course of next week.

Some 50,000 households on the northern coast of Estonia used to receive the analogue signals of Finnish TV using antennas. Viewers in the areas where the DTT signals from Finland can be received have the option to buy a digital decoder, if they so wish. However, many Estonian satellite and cable providers supply Finnish channels in their packages. Estonia plans to go digital in four years’ time.

Source: Helsingin Sanomat via Media Network Weblog