Dublin hosted last 15-19 May the 88th meeting of the working group on Frequency Management (WG FM), chaired by Thomas Weilacher of Germany and attended by 103 delegates from 31 CEPT administrations, the European Commission, the European Communications Office (ECO), the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) and 15 international organisations.
A summary of notable decisions made at the meeting is presented below:
- The new Decision (17)03 was adopted for submission to the ECC for final approval and publication. It revokes ERC Decision (98)15 on “Exemption from Individual Licensing of Omnitracs Terminals for the Euteltracs System”;
- Also adopted for submission to the ECC for final approval and publication was the new Decision (17)04 on “The harmonised use and exemption from individual licensing of fixed earth stations operating with NGSO FSS systems in the frequency bands 10.7-12.75 GHz and 14.0-14.5 GHz (Ku-band)”;
- The preparation of an ECC report on “Low power audio PMSE in the band 960–1164 MHz” is under way. There is still active debate regarding a number of legal and regulatory questions raised by sharing of the 960-1164 MHz band;
- A new ECC decision on terrestrial mobile systems is being prepared, covering narrowband, broadband, M2M, analogue and digital systems in 400 MHz and in very high frequency private mobile radio/public access mobile radio bands, encompassing the 68-87.5 MHz, 146-174 MHz, 406.1-410 MHz, 410-430 MHz, 440-450 MHz and 450-470 MHz bands. This new decision is meant to replace ECC Decisions (04)06 (wideband) and (06)06 (narrowband);
- The preparation of ECC draft report 268 on drones was completed; it was approved for submission to extended public consultation until this coming 15 September;
- Revision of the European Common Table and ECC Decision (01)03 of EFIS was approved; both are now in public consultation until this coming 15 August;
- Recommendation ECC (17)03 was approved for publication. It concerns “Guidance for the harmonised use and coordination of maritime broadband radio (MBR) systems on board ships and off-shore platforms operating within the frequency bands 5852-5872 MHz and 5880-5900 MHz”;
- A new working topic was created, “Assess the feasibility of M2M IoT operation through satellite from a technical and regulatory point of view”, which should result in production of an ECC report by September 2018.
The next WG FM meeting will be held on this coming 9-13 October in Zagreb, Croatia.
