The 20th meeting of the Regulatory Affairs working group (WG RA) was held last 11-14 May in the Polish city of Gdynia, attended by 36 participants from a total of 22 administrations as well as representatives from the European Communications Office (ECO), European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) and the European Organisation for the Safety of Air Navigation (Eurocontrol).
The rapporteur from CG RA-TUR (Spectrum Tradable Usage Rights) presented a first version of the report being produced on the trading of spectrum usage rights, which includes a chapter (advantages and disadvantages of secondary spectrum trading) which goes somewhat beyond the group’s mandate. It was nevertheless agreed to maintain the said chapter for the time being. This report was based on a questionnaire produced by the group and sent to the administrations for their comments, between last 4 February and 6 April; 22 responses were received.
As no developments were noted in the scope of CG RA-RIS by the various working groups assigned this task, a liaison statement (LS) was approved. It will be sent to the WGs on Frequency Management (WG FM), Spectrum Engineering (WG SE) and ECC PT1, recalling that in accordance with the 2009 ECC decision, all deliverables approved since then must be shifted to the format specified by the RIS template. Another LS was approved, for submission to the SRD Management Group (SRD MG), regarding RIS implementation in terms of short range devices, specifically with respect to implementation of the RIS model to Recommendation 70-03.
WG RA approved the working programme of the recently created ad hoc working group on Cognitive Radio. It was decided that the rapporteur of the Correspondence Group on White Spaces Cognitive Radio (CG WS-CR) would be the United Kingdom. A number of aspects were also analysed which require co-ordination from other groups focusing on CR issues, namely in the scope of WG FM and WG SE.
WG RA proceeded to revise several ECC decisions in its charge, namely:
• ERC Decision (98)22 on “Exemption from Individual Licensing of DECT Equipment, Except Fixed Parts which Provide for Public Access” – the group approved a preliminary revised version of this decision, which is pending resolution at PIRE level. A liaison statement was also approved to send to the WG FM and WG SE groups;
• ERC Decision (99)02 on “Exemption from Individual Licensing of Terrestrial Trunked Radio System (TETRA) Mobile Terminals” – the group approved the revised version of this Decision, which will be published by the ECO. It also mandated the chairman to obtain the ECC’s endorsement to eventually develop a decision of a more generic scope, including not only the TETRA system but also other trunking technologies, namely the equipment mentioned in decisions ECC/DEC/(08)05, ECC/DEC/(04)06 e ECC/DEC/(06)06;
• ECC Decision (02)09 on “Free Circulation and Use of GSM-R Mobile Terminals Operating within the Frequency Bands 876-880 MHz and 921-925 MHz for Railway Purposes in CEPT Countries, Enlarging the Field of Application of ERC/DEC/(95)01” and ECC Decision (02)10 on “Exemption from Individual Licensing of GSM-R Mobile Terminals Operating within the Frequency Bands 876 - 880 MHz and 921 - 925 MHz for Railway Purposes” – in the case of these two decisions, the revision and preliminary grounds of the ECO were considered; PT RA3 was mandated, in light of discussions at this plenary meeting, to propose maintaining, revising (in this case presenting concrete proposals) or revoking both decisions at the next WG RA plenary meeting;
• ECC Decision (00)06 on “the Licensing and Global Circulation and Use of IMT-2000 Terrestrial and Satellite Mobile Terminals” – the proposals to amend this decision, put forward by PTRA3, as well as comments from the group to same, will be sent to ECC PT1.
WG RA also decided to revise decisions (97)11, (98)20 and (98)21, taking into account the ECC PT1 decision to maintain decisions ERC/DEC/(95)03, ERC/DEC/(94)01 and ERC/DEC/(97)02.
Following a proposal presented by the Eurocontrol representative, the plenary session approved a report assessing the need for an ECC decision to regulate broadband connection and the applications usually offered by internet service providers in communications on board aircraft. According to the same proposal, the system should operate in the 5091-5150 MHz bands.
Regarding procedural issues, specifically the introduction of electronic working means (EWMs) in ECC activities, PT RA3 reported the fact that the seven reports received to date were all from PT SE24. The chair will thus have to remind the next ECC plenary meeting (Baden, 21-25 June 2010) that the chairs of the subordinated bodies must submit to WG RA their analysis of EWMs. If this does not occur, an insistence will be sent to same.
In the wake of European airspace circulation restrictions caused by the volcano in Iceland, the group also encouraged the ECO to continue extending EWMs to larger groups and to report on that experience to WG RA, even though this is outside the current mandate and some administrations hold that it is premature to do so while questions such as the decision-making process and electronic voting have not been decided.
As for the introduction of impact assessments (IAs) in the ECC’s work, the plenary session mandated the chair to promote debate at the next ECC with respect to including comments on IA from the administrations which result from public consultation processes, with a view to producing “Best ECC Practices in Terms of IA”. The ECO should in turn publish IA case-studies on its website.
Lastly, Switzerland gave a presentation on Cognitive Radio. In the wake of the ECC decision and due to the holding of WRC-2012, the group also decided to cancel the January-February 2012 WG RA plenary meeting.
The next WG RA plenary meeting will be held on 14-17 September 2010 in Ljubljana, Slovenia.
