Why Digital and Why mandatory

From what I understand, this is something that has been in the planning for quite some time. When 911 happened, it expedited the transition. The Government will be using the frequency bands for communication...particularly any terrorist activity. I don't know how extensive this plan is (spying on them or just a further means of communication with us), but it seems to be warranted. I do think that the government should provide free "boxes" to those that only get TV by antennae though. I am fortunate enough to have sattelite TV, but there are so many that don't...we should be doing something to ensure that these folks have our beloved EMERGENCY BROADCAST SYSTEM!

The uk has started going digital this year and like in the usa there is no choice you either go with it be left watching a black screen, i belive it is to free up the radio freqs for the mobile phone mast and also to clear the airwaves so that the emergency services can have more bandwidth making it easier for themto stay in touch with each other.

I too am concerned. All TV's will have to either be digital or have a box atached to it to receive signal from an anteana. They are not saying why. Just saying it is being done

The way I heard it is that the Radio waves are getting too congested and the government is cleaning up non-critical matter off. * There are a lot more things fighting for frequency then there were even ten years ago. The cell phone population has exploded, GPS devices are everywhere, and there are wi-fi antennas in almost every pocket grabbing for still more. I don't think there is a conspiracy. * Some things are not critical. That includes entertainment media like television. The average cable subscriber gets over 50 channels of content. The number of channels continues to climb, adding to the congestion every year, and having All My Children horn in to an emergency dispatch call can be unwanted.

probably to clear the air for cell phones. or,to make us all buy new tv's :( they're supposed to be doing away with the old style light bulbs too,in favor of the lil flourescents. either item,i hope they're planning on bringing the prices down too being as it will be mandatory.