HL Deb 20 April 1988 vol 495 cc1612-4WA
Baroness Cox

asked Her Majesty's Government:

What is the outcome of the Government's technical feasibility study into the use of the VHF Bands I and III for broadcasting.

The Secretary of State for Trade and Industry (Lord Young of Graffham)

The technical feasibility study has shown that there is insufficient scope within Band III to accommodate a broadcast channel without the risk of serious mutual interference with adjacent mobile services. In Band I, there is potential scope for a single broadcast channel covering at most some, but not all, the major conurbations. But even this restricted coverage could not be achieved unless a number of existing mobile radio services were to be moved at very substantial expense.

Additionally, the reintroduction of high power broadcasting in this band could be very difficult and costly to negotiate with our international neighbouring administrations, who would regard a policy reversal by the UK as a serious disruption of the international understandings on which their domestic planning over the past few years has been based.

VHF Band I also suffers from a seasonal pattern of interference known as sporadic-E, whereby broadcasts from 1000 km or further away can be reflected from the ionosphere, completely obliterating the wanted signals for prolonged periods. Finally, the Civil Aviation Authority have advised us that the reintroduction of broadcasting could pose some threat of harmonic interference to aircraft navigational and communications systems.

With so many actual or potential disadvantages in return for, at best, an extremely restricted coverage, we have concluded that the reintroduction of broadcasting into VHF Bands I and III is not a viable option and that it is in the interests of all concerned to make that conclusion public at the earliest possible date.