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I think that it'd be more likely that electricity companies that don't conform to their mandated deadline get fined
surely there's some form of penalty attached to the deadline?
and the funds used to continue this longwave service for a second extension, or the same happen with just government funds, as has already apparently happened once.
The issue isn’t the funds, it’s the practicality. The transmitter needs two obsolete valves to operate, and the BBC bought the entire world’s supply in around 2010, which still amounted to less than ten. When one of the final pair blows it’s the end regardless of money.
Hmm.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Droitwich_Transmitting_Station
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_longwave_radio_broadcasters
According to this, there are only three other longwave transmitting stations in the world at least as high-power as this station: one in each of Morocco, Algeria, and Poland. So I guess that it's a pretty esoteric sort of hardware.
Wouldn’t it be possible just to replace the valve transmitter with a digitised version that sent out the same signal?
It would cost millions to design and build it and, as it would be the only one in the world ever built, it would again rely on bespoke components, for a service the BBC has been wanting to close for nearly 20 years anyway and is purely being kept open for the last stragglers to be herded onto smart meters.
Surely cheaper than enforcing mass installations. (Although it’s customers doubtlessly picking up this cost.)
The installations have to happen. Why spend hundreds of millions of licence fee payer’s money the BBC doesn’t have on a temporary kicking of the can?
And why can’t the power companies pay for this out of their eye-watering profits? I don’t understand why you think the BBC needs to be involved any more. (People I know have only had issues with smart meter installations that have caused just unnecessary stress. I’m pretty much waiting until I hear that they actually work better than half the time and that there are mechanisms to verify readings before I sign up.)
So still costing hundreds of millions, and not broadcasting audio, just the trigger signal? Sounds like an even more colossal waste of resources.
The vast majority of people have switched to smart meters without issue. For those where there are technical barriers, some sort of fallback should be provided. But the stubborn and bloody-minded should be left to it.