The communications watchdog Ofcom has cautioned all that the new 4G mobile phones will interrupt digital TV signals. It is expected that the new 4G phones will be in the markets by the year 2013.

Ofcom has made it clear that it wanted to make sure that both the services function together and that the companies has to do something related to this so as to reduce the interference between digital TV and 4G mobiles. It also pointed out that, if no action is taken on this regard, that TV picture quality of the Freeview service could be affected in nearly 760,000 UK homes.

A filter will have to be fixed in the aerial of their TV sets to block the interfacing signals and at the same time the mobile base station also will have to be changed. The regulator made clear that the cost will have to be paid by the mobile operators. The possibility of the filter not working properly has been considered as well and in such cases, the customer will have to move completely to a satellite service.

In spite of all these, 4G mobiles will bring in drastic improvement on browsing the internet while on the move.

It is expected that next year, the 800 MHz spectrum will be freed up by the digital TV switchover. Moreover, it will be offered to mobile operators in a public sale run by Ofcom next year. There are fears that this frequency is close to those used for digital terrestrial television broadcasting. These can in turn interfere with set-top boxes and digital televisions. It is estimated that if nothing is done to solve the problem, nearly 3% of digital terrestrial viewers could see their service get worse.