Telstraclear said its cable television set-top boxes were unlikely to be affected by interference from 4G mobile phones that has been reported in Europe.
A report compiled by Belgian testing company Excentis said it was very likely that in Europe 4G phones and possibly cellsites would interfere with set-top boxes attached to HFC (hybrid fibre coax) cable networks.
Excentis found television reception could suffer if phones were used within six metres of a set-top box. Any interference from cellsites would be difficult to mitigate.
Mobile phone companies are expected to launch 4G networks based on LTE technology in New Zealand soon after suitable radio spectrum is freed up in November 2013.
TelstraClear spokesman David Courtney said interference was unlikely to be an issue for its new T-Box set-top box which went on sale to cable television customers in Wellington and Christchurch last month.
Economic Development Ministry radio spectrum manager Brian Miller said the spectrum that would be released for LTE networks here was in the 694-806MHz band, rather than the 790-862MHz band that was subject to the European study.
"Companies in the US have begun to deploy LTE networks in the [former] band, and so far there have been no reports of interference with cable TV".