Bangladesh urged to address TV disruption

The Government of Bangladesh must take urgent action to stop the disruption of television services affecting millions across the country, say its cable and satellite TV providers. The interference to broadcast signals is being caused by wireless broadband services using WiMAX technology - recently introduced to Bangladesh - according to the Cable Operators Association of Bangladesh (COAB), the Global VSAT Forum (GVF), and the regionally-based Cable & Satellite Broadcasting Association of Asia (CASBAA). Gregg Daffner, chairman of CASBAA's Wireless Action Group said: "the largely unanticipated implications of the introduction of WiMAX services at 3.5GHz is causing widespread transmission failures throughout the country and can be especially serious for news broadcasters which use the lower end of the Standard C-band spectrum." "However, there is a solution to this very serious problem," added David Hartshorn, secretary general, GVF. "The interfering WiMAX services can use other, less crowded frequencies." In other markets, WiMAX operators have successfully migrated from the 3.5GHz band, "so we know we can resolve the crisis in Bangladesh," said Hartshorn. Hong Kong based APT Satellite, which provides satellite capacity to many TV channels in Bangladesh, has conducted extensive field tests to confirm that the source of the interference is from WiMAX operators. "APT Satellite Company is committed to helping our customers and the Bangladesh government to resolve this issue, so that interference-free broadcast and cable services can be restored," said Huang Baozhong, the company's vice president.