UK. ANCHOR HOUSING.Switch-over to DVB-T.

That's not allways true. It would depend on where you are, what transmitter covered your location and what type of aerial you have and possibly other factors specific to your installation such as obstructions between you and the transmitter.

Normally the most you would need to do is to change the TV aerial for a wide band version. In a very few cases where a wide band aerial isn't optimum I guess it might be necessary to change the aerial twice. This is because on some transmitters the frequencies used for digital at the moment are temporary and they will change again once the analog signal is switched off.

My guess is that they are taking this oportunity to replace old wiring. However they shouldn't need to replace it just because of the digital switch over, perhaps some residents have other problems caused by old or badly routed wiring? (A relative of mine in a block of flats has problems with drop out when someone uses the lift).

I think I would ask for a technical explanation if you haven't already done so.

Yes! Just try getting a water main diverted. The water co is the only company allowed to do the work and they won't do it on a fixed price basis. They estimated £4700 and billed me £8000+ despite the job being straightforward on a green field site. The bill was headed "adhoc billing" and the breakdown I requested included £2000 "Administration charges". The actual work should have taken a few days at most (that's how long they were actually working on site) but start to finish took 4 months!

Agreed.

There is another possible issue - I believe some digital transmitter have to broadcast at much reduced power levels compared to the analog signal (at least during change over). This is to stop interferrence with other transmitters in adjacent areas that are using similar frequencies. I guess a bigger aerial might be required because of this but an aerial shouldn't cost £150 _each_

Do let us know what they say. Have the owners considered getting a second opinion/quote?

If it turns out they are replacing the cable because it's old or has some water in check if the cost of that work should be covered by the existing building maintenance charge.

Here is an interesting article on the implications of DTT written by an aerial installer....

If you are anywhere near them they sould like a good bet for a second quote.

In message , CWatters writes

A meeting was held a few days ago which was very illuminating. Two technical reps. from the contractors were present. After a patronising little speech suggesting that elderly residents could not face the task of installing set-top boxes, it was revealed that the plan was to install new cabling together with a main tuner/amplifier to take the digital signal down to each flat so that TV sets could be plugged in directly to the programmes. (This might be neat but quite unnecessary.) I have since had an offer from a local young man who was so incensed by all this that he offered to help install any set-top box in this home, free, if necessary.) A new, more powerful 'digital' aerial was proposed and when I pointed out that there was no such thing, one of the con-men (sorry, technical experts) corrected himself and admitted that it would work on analogue signals too! The two gents then went of to ' test the signal here'. On return, one gave a classic car dealer's sigh and informed us, "Your signal here is very poor". My piece of wet string must be working well to give me such a good picture! I understand that Anchor have more than 24 000 properties and at £140 a time that adds up to a contract worth over £3million. Nice work lads.