Radio spectrum management involves the planning, definition and application of the price table and licensing procedures, and spectrum monitoring and control, as well as other related subjects such as non-ionising radiation.
In the area of spectrum planning, ICP-ANACOM approved and published the ?Frequency Publication for the 2-Year Period 2001-2002?, which identifies frequencies allocated through 30 September 2001 and the frequency bands reserved in 2002 for usage by public telecommunications network operators, providers of public use telecommunications services and holders of private telecommunications networks, besides defining the ways to grant frequencies to different entities.
With the aim of implementing the current legal framework applicable for radio spectrum fees, ICP-ANACOM also developed a new spectrum planning and management tool known as PLAGE (planeamento e gestão de espectro), which ensures the necessary flexibility, namely supporting the calculation of spectrum usage fees according to new methods and encompassing not only land mobile service (private networks) but also fixed service by satellite and, in the short term, radio-determination service. This database likewise registers all administrative information from users of radiocommunications systems and the technical parameters that characterise radio stations and networks.
Also begun in 2002, and expected to finish in 2004, was a project that aims to provide on the web an automatic means to obtain radio licensing and frequency allocation and to simulate spectrum usage fees. Another project under way, SIGE (Integrated Spectrum Management System), aims to endow ICP-ANACOM with an automatic integrated spectrum management system made up by a set of software tools that cover the various existing radiocommunications services and a database of digital ground information.
In the area of radio licenses, ICP-ANACOM undertook in 2002 to study the licensing procedures, including frequency allocation, with the aim of issuing network and station licences for various radiocommunications services.
In the context of spectrum monitoring and control, and the operation of radiocommunications networks and stations, efforts were made to develop harmonised measurement and evaluation procedures and methods, specifically for audio and television broadcasting services. Likewise launched was the Integrated Monitoring Project, whose goal is to set up a national spectrum monitoring and control network.
On the assumption that the issue of health effects resulting from non-ionising radiation is recognisably multidisciplinary in nature, the fourth quarter of 2002 witnessed the start of work by the inter-ministry group on the population?s exposure to electromagnetic fields, co-ordinated by the Health Ministry and in which ICP-ANACOM participates. Its objectives are to propose a framework of basic limits and appropriate reference levels and to draw up proposals for tangible action in the context of this issue.
On the other hand, and given the reference levels for the population?s exposure to electromagnetic fields set in Council Recommendation 1999/519/EC of 12 July, ICP-ANACOM has been overseeing compliance with those levels, acting either on own initiative or due to complaints or claims. Some 410 complaints or claims concerning non-ionising radiation had been received by the end of 2002 for analysis of tangible situations; 400 cases had been closed by the end of March 2003, many of them following on-site measurements. Study of the clarification requests involving radiocommunications stations showed that in most cases the figures for electromagnetic fields were substantially lower than the reference levels in the aforementioned Recommendation.
Due to the need to inform the population in general, ICP-ANACOM developed a set of measures concerning electromagnetic fields caused by mobile telephone base station antennas. An informative leaflet on the subject was produced and widely disseminated, with the aim of answering legal and technical questions related to antenna localisation and the authorised emission levels for electromagnetic radiation. A section with detailed information on subjects related to exposure to electromagnetic fields was set up on the ICP-ANACOM website, while a theoretical model is also being developed, which studies the distribution of electromagnetic field around an antenna for the various radiocommunications services, in order to determine for each of those services the distances within the maximum electric field levels indicated in the said Recommendation no. 1999/519/EC.
