87th meeting of the Frequency Management working group - Luxembourg


Luxembourg hosted from last 30 January to 3 February the 87th meeting of CEPT’s Frequency Management working group (WG FM). It was chaired by Thomas Weilacher of Germany and attended by 88 delegates from 31 CEPT administrations, including representatives from the European Commission (EC), European Communications Office (ECO), International Telecommunication Union (ITU) and 14 international organisations.

Below is a summary of key decisions made at the meeting:

  • Approval of a draft addendum to CEPT Report 59 in response to the permanent EC mandate to update the technical annex of the Commission Decision on Short Range Devices, aiming to present possibilities to harmonise the 870-876/915-921 MHz spectrum, also taking into consideration new opportunities in the 862-868 MHz interval. The draft addendum will be submitted to the ECC in late February 2017 for final approval and publication;
  • Adoption of two new ECC decisions that revoke obsolete decisions on applications CT1, CT1+, CT2 and S-PCS, to be submitted to the ECC for final approval and publication;
  • Adoption of two revisions of ECC decisions on (i) free circulation and use of earth stations on board vessels that function with fixed satellite service networks in the 5925-6425 MHz  (Earth-space) and 3700-4200 MHz (space-Earth) bands, and (ii) protection of Earth exploration by satellite service (passive) in the 1400-1427 MHz band, which will also be submitted to the ECC for final approval and publication;
  • Creation of a new project team to deal with spectrum issues associated to railway applications. It will especially work on spectrum needs for the future railway mobile communication system, in accordance with SRDoc TR 103 333 of the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI);
  • Approval for publication of the revision of an ECC recommendation on planning and coordination criteria for GSM900, GSM1800, E-GSM and GSM-R terrestrial mobile systems and the revision of two ECC recommendations on cross-border coordination for mobile/fixed communications networks in the 790-862 MHz and 2500-2690 MHz intervals.

The next WG FM meeting will be held on 15-19 May 2017 in Dublin.