The EFIS-MG working group is responsible, among other activities, for maintaining the EFIS (ECO Frequency Information System) portal and developing/updating it in the context of the new spectrum policy of the European Commission and the Radio Equipment Directive (RED), Directive 2014/53/EU of 16 April 2014 (concerning harmonisation of member states’ legislation regarding the market availability of radio equipment and which revokes Directive 1999/5/EC), particularly by revising and integrating the radio interface specifications models. It is also responsible for revising Decisions ECC/DEC/(01)03 on the ECO Frequency Information System (EFIS) and ECC/DEC/(03)05, “The publication of national tables of frequency allocations and utilisations (NTFAs)”, and for revising ECO Report 05 “CEPT, ECC AND EC DELIVERABLES, Relation to application terminology specified in ECC Decision (01)03 Annex 2” and ERC Report 25 “The European table of frequency allocations and applications in the frequency range 8.3 kHz to 3000 GHz (ECA TABLE)”.
The 40th meeting of the EFIS-MG working group took place last 20-21 September in Mainz, Germany, chaired by Stefan Mayer-Bidmon of Germany and attended by 22 participants, including representatives of 18 administrations (Austria, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Ireland, Latvia, Luxembourg, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Switzerland and the United Kingdom) and the European Communications Office (ECO).
Progress made in the EFIS portal since the last EFIS-MG meeting in August 2017 was discussed by the group along with future developments. Notably, the eventual development of an application programming interface (API) for EFIS is envisaged; also, the update consultation log will be improved.
As usual, the administrations attending the meeting reported the current situation of the updates they have made or plan to make in EFIS.
The proposed revisions of the main body and annexes 2 and 5 of Decision ECC (01)03, approved at the last WG FM meeting, were under public consultation until 15 August 2017; the comments received were all resolved. Additional proposals were also received, specifically to include two new terms for layer 3 applications, such as “DVB-T2” and “T-DAB+”, in annex 2 of Decision ECC (01)03, under the layer 1 application broadcasting and the layer 2 application terrestrial broadcasting, which were accepted, and additional text to make clear the use of application terms that are no longer part of annex 2 of Decision ECC (01)03. These new proposals mean that the proposed revision of Decision ECC (01)03 must be approved at the October 2017 WG FM meeting for consultation of the administrations.
The proposed revision of the ECA Table was adopted at the WG FM meeting (May 2017) for public consultation until 15 August 2017; the comments received were all resolved. In this regard, note that various references to standards of the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) were revised.
Also revised was ECC Report 180 on “Guidance on the interpretation of the requirements of ECC/DEC/(01)03 on EFIS”, particularly to reflect the Radio Directive and new developments affecting the EFIS portal and respective functions. The document will be submitted to the 89th WG FM meeting in October 2017 so it can be adopted for public consultation.
A workshop on EFIS was held on 19 September. The presentations given and respective conclusions can be consulted on the respective internet event page http://www.cept.org/ecc/groups/ecc/wg-fm/efismg/news/eco-efis-workshop-on-19-september-2017/.
