Dutch Cabinet wants to minimise number of satellite dishes

The Dutch Cabinet agreed a plan on Friday designed to reduce the number of satellite dishes needed to serve homes.

Although the Netherlands is well served by cable and broadband TV, there are areas, mainly in the cities, which have a large number of non-Dutch residents who install satellite dishes to watch TV from their home country.

The Cabinet's idea is that, since in most cases all the dishes in one apartment block point at the same satellite, it should only be necessary to have one dish on the building which feeds individual homes by a wireless link. This would also have the advantage that people living in apartments on the wrong side of the building could also access the satellite signals, which they would not be able to receive directly.

In order to achieve this, the national frequency plan will be revised to include a specific frequency range for such wireless transmissions, and of course they must not disturb other wireless users. A licence will be required for the use of such a wireless system. It's not clear who the licence holder will be - presumably the owner of the building.

It's also not clear whether residents will be forced to use such a system rather than have their own dish. This would bring the Dutch authorities into conflict with the European Union's Open Skies policy.

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