Below is the reply I received via my local MP to a question I had on why the
local transmitter can't have digital, pretty standard reply.

Dear Mr ******
Further to our recent correspondence please find enclosed a self-explanatory
letter from Martyn Culling at the BBC.
I am sorry to send a disappointing reply.
Yours Tim Collins MP


Tim Collins MP
Kendal
Cumbria
12 June 2003
Dear Mr Collins

Thank you for your letter of 31st May to Freeview which has been passed to
me for attention. It refers to the email to yourself from your constituent
Mr *** ****** who is regrettably not yet served by digital terrestrial
television.
The town of Kendal is mostly served by the analogue television relay of the
same name, which as you will realise has not yet been converted to digital.
This analogue relay transmitter was provided as Kendal is in a depression
which signals from larger stations are unable to reach. Whilst one may as Mr
****** has done, receive some digital transmissions from Lancaster, I
certainly would not expect this to provide anything like a reliable service
within the town of Kendal. It does however illustrate one of the major
constraints in service planning as signals travel further than their useful
range.

The digital terrestrial services have to share the same band of frequencies
as are already used for conventional analogue television, and it has only
been possible to achieve this level of coverage by extremely careful use of
the limited frequencies available. Although there may be still some
extension to the coverage of digital television that can be achieved by
judicial changes at these existing transmitter sites, very few further sites
can be equipped to deliver digital services whilst the existing analogue
network remains in place.

The Governments aim is, subject to key conditions being met, to achieve a
full switch-over from analogue to digital television by 2010. There are a
wide range of issues which this presents, including the level of coverage of
digital terrestrial television as the process moves forward. In order to
address all these issues, the Government established a Digital Television
Action Plan, which is a major project involving all stakeholders in the
digital future. Part of the project is to develop a range of coverage and
transition plans for digital terrestrial television in order to help inform
this process. It is therefore not possible to provide information on
possible further developments of digital terrestrial television coverage at
present, but a clearer picture is likely to emerge as some key elements in
this wide ranging piece of work are resolved towards the end of 2003.

Mr ****** makes reference to Sky and in actual fact, you can get one of
their receivers for a one off payment of £120 providing you agree to have it
connected to a phone line for a year. In addition the BBC will shortly be
ceasing encryption on its digital satellite services so any digital
satellite receiver aligned at Astra 2 will work. Note the same is not true
of ITV, C4 and C5 etc. Freeview itself is a terrestrial only service,
although I should point out there are a number of different channels on
digital satellite which are also unencrypted - hence free to watch.

Yours sincerely
Martyn Culling
Co-ordinating Engineer
BBC Reception Advice