Engineers are to be called in by the government over the next few weeks in an attempt to stop a television blackout from occurring when 4G is introduced in the UK fully later this year. Fears were raised by the industry's telecommunications watchdog Ofcom recently said that a small minority of homes will be affected; and with only a few months to go before its launch, ministers are acting now to get it fixed.
Indeed, it believes as many as two million homes could find their television is affected by 4G because both services will use similar spectrum. According to experts, those with blacked out coverage will need to install a filter or even move to satellite or cable.
After years of delay in the launch of 4G - the spectrum auction has been put back several times - the government is keen for the process to take place without further problems. Because of this, ministers will be setting up Digital Mobile Spectrum Limited - a group in charge of ensuring television isn't affected - and appointing Simon Beresford-Wylie as its chief executive.
To pay for this, around £180 million has already been raised by the country's mobile groups, helping engineers to find solutions to the problem. Furthermore, these specialists may also be asked in a few cases to visit people's homes to install filters. Additionally, it will be conducting pilots on the filters to ensure they work.
However, as Mr Beresford-Wylie explained earlier this week, time is running out for everything to be in place. "The 4G networks will likely be running from this summer," he noted. "We need to be fully operational by March to be in place to mitigate any interference issues.
"We expect to be able to identify affected households. We will need to procure millions [of filters] in the first instance."
Late last year, Everything Everywhere became the first company to launch its own 4G network after being given government approval. While it has now expanded this service to several cities across the UK, it does not cause problems with television sets because it uses 1,800MHz radio spectrum.
However, the Daily Telegraph reports that the 800MHz band - which will be used to reach more rural areas in the country - is likely to cause problems with digital televisions, which use the 700MHz band. With this in mind, Mr Beresford-Wylie and Digital Mobile Spectrum Limited are facing a quick turnaround.