Zagreb hosted last 9-13 October the 89th meeting of CEPT’s working group on Frequency Management (WG FM), chaired by Thomas Weilacher of Germany and attended by 87 delegates from 31 CEPT administrations, the European Commission (EC), the European Communications Office (ECO), the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) and 15 international organisations.
Below is a summary of the meeting’s most significant decisions:
- adopted, to be submitted to the ECC for final approval and publication, the revision of Decision ECC/DEC/(01)03 on the ECO Frequency Information System (EFIS); two of its annexes (2 and 5) were again modified and will be submitted to a limited consultation of administrations;
- approved, for publication, a new revision of the European Common Table;
- approved, for publication, the revisions of annexes 1 (non-specific Short Range Devices (SRD)), 2 (data acquisition, tracking and tracing), 3 (wideband data transmission systems), 5 (transport and traffic telematics), 9 (inductive applications) and 12 (medical implants) of Recommendation ERC/REC 70-03; the changes are meant to align the texts with CEPT Report 59 and respective addendum, and also to include new frequency intervals for non-specific SRDs in 862-863 MHz, SRDs for data networks in 865-868 MHz, broadband data transmission equipment in the 863-868 MHz interval and ultra low power endoscopic capsules in the 430-440 MHz interval;
- editorial revisions approved (e.g. update to the new ECC format, adjustments derived from transition from the R&TTE Directive to the Radio Directive, update of harmonised European standards, inclusion of references to related EC decisions), without need for public consultation, of the following decisions: ERC/DEC/(01)11 and ERC/DEC/(01)12 on control of models in 35 MHz and 40 MHz respectively, ERC/DEC/(01)17 on ultra low power active medical implants (ULP-AMI), ECC/DEC/(05)02 on the 169.4-169.8125 MHz frequency band and ECC/DEC/(11)02 on radars for measuring reservoir levels; WG FM will also propose to the ECC the revocation of Decision ERC/DEC/(01)08 on movement detection in 2.4 GHz because the spectrum in question is already harmonised;
- approved, to be submitted to public consultation, the revision of Recommendation ECC/REC/(05)01 on Harmonisation of Automatic Measuring Methods and Data Transfer for Frequency Band Registrations; the introduced changes include the multiscan option, as already set out in Recommendation SM.1809 of the ITU Radiocommunication Sector (ITUR-R), mobile measurements and also the possibility of recording data files in binary format in order to facilitate file transfers with large quantities of information;
- continued preparation of a report on low power audio PMSE in the band 960-1164 MHz, though there are still many doubts regarding several legal and regulatory questions raised by sharing of the 960-1164 MHz band; the results of technical studies to be conducted by the ECC’s Spectrum Engineering working group (WG SE) will be awaited to underpin an eventual ECC report (foreseeably in May 2020);
- continued preparation of a new ECC Decision for terrestrial mobile systems, considering narrowband, broadband, machine-to-machine (M2M), analogue and digital systems in 400 MHz and in very high frequency (VHF) PMR/PAMR 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 Decisions ECC/DEC/(04)06 (wideband) and ECC/DEC/(06)06 (narrowband);
- postponement of final approval of draft Report ECC 268 on Technical and Regulatory Aspects and the Needs for Spectrum Regulation for Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS), which has already been subject to public consultation, in order to make clear the Radio Directive’s applicability to open and specific classes of UAS, as determined in the new regulation of the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA).
The next WG FM meeting will be held on 5-9 February 2018 in Birmingham, United Kingdom.
