The sixth meeting of the working group on “Long Term Vision for the UHF Broadcasting Band” (ECC TG6) was held on 1-3 October 2014 in Prague and attended by 60 participants, among them representatives from several administrations, the European Communications Office (ECO) and organisations/companies. The group is chaired by ANACOM.
ECC TG6 was created at the 34th meeting of the ECC (June 2013). Its main goal is to produce studies aiming to develop a long term vision for the ultra high frequency (UHF) broadcasting band, with a focus on the 470-694 MHz band in Europe, specifically focusing on the following basic issues:
- identification and analysis of possible scenarios for the band’s long term development, based on the current situation and recognising ongoing studies in the 700 MHz band in Europe and short/middle term developments (e.g. AI 1.2 of the 2015 World Radiocommunication Conference (WRC-15) and the response to the European Commission (EC) mandate);
- the CEPT administrations’ flexibility to individually consider the band’s future use;
- the manner of guaranteeing fair access for CEPT administrations that aim to exploit broadcasting services;
- how to guarantee that there will be a stable environment for future investments by services envisaged for the band (including programme making and special events (PMSE) equipment).
The group should accordingly produce a draft ECC report.
At its 36th meeting in March 2014 the ECC assigned a new task to TG6 regarding broadcasting plans from the 2006 Geneva Agreement (GE06) in 700 MHz, bearing in mind the need to harmonise and supply information about cross-border coordination in that band. The ECO has coordinated the issue since the fourth ECC TG6 meeting in April 2014 and prepared a document for the fifth meeting, which was considered and modified by the group. TG6’s proposal was finalised at this meeting, as requested by the ECC; TG6 will submit its proposal for the ECC meeting in November 2014.
Draft ECC Report 224 on “Long Term Vision for the UHF broadcasting band” was finalised at the fifth TG6 meeting in May 2014 and adopted for public consultation by the ECC at its 37th meeting in June 2014. The public consultation ran from 1 July to 9 September 2014; 28 responses were received. Those comments led to the conclusion that the produced report is supported in general and that the proposed changes mainly aim to improve content and quality.
Draft ECC Report 224 was totally revised and all comments received were taken into account during the discussions. The executive summary and conclusions were also revised. In generic terms, the previously reached agreement is maintained, even with the proposed changes. The document is to be submitted for final approval and adoption at the 38th ECC meeting in November 2014.
Note that this was the last meeting of the ECC TG6 working group.
