Brussels hosted on 21 June 2005 the 7th meeting of this working group, chaired by the United Kingdom.
The European Commissioner for the Information Society and the Media, Viviane Reding, gave an opening presentation on her views of this working group?s role and the main challenges faced by the European Commission with regard to spectrum management.
Ms Reding called attention to the recent adoption of the ?strategy policy for a knowledge-based society and on mobile information? known as i2010. She said it was vital to create a competitive single market open to the information society and to media services. She considered the following to be essential among her priorities and vis-à-vis the RSPG?s work:
- More efficient spectrum management policies in Europe.
From this standpoint she announced a forthcoming Communication to the Council and to the Parliament on the need for a minimum level of consistency and more convergence between national policies on secondary spectrum trading.
She also focused on the need for secondary trading policy to be accompanied by more flexible spectrum use and a consistent approach to defining the WAPEC (wireless access platforms for electronic communications) usage framework. - The switchover from analogue to digital broadcasting.
She announced that a Communication on preparations for the next Regional Radiocommunications Conference (RRC06) will soon be announced.
Ms Reding also indicated that the following items were very important and thus merited analysis and debate in the RSPG:
- harmonisation of the definition of spectrum usage rights/ property rights, in order to facilitate the introduction of pan-European services;
- the role of ?liberalised? spectrum in the development of new technologies;
- the impact of spectrum usage fees on markets and innovation in various countries.
She also reported that the Commission aims to join with the member States in working towards a ?pro-innovation? spectrum policy, based on the following grounds:
- lower industry entry barriers;
- gradual convergence of spectrum regulation, specifically between broadcasting and mobile communications;
- fully operational internal market for radiocommunications equipment and services.
The following subjects were also debated during the meeting:
- WAPEC
An RSPG working document on the group?s future Opinion on this issue was approved. Although still a group working document, a decision was nevertheless made to submit it to public consultation as is, in order to speed the process of reaching a final decision on this matter.
The respective public consultation runs from the end of June until mid-September. Parallel to this a specific sub-group will continue to examine the issue. It is hoped that the conditions to make a final decision on this Opinion will be in place by the next RSPG meeting in November - WRC07
The meeting?s chairman submitted a proposed text for the Opinion on WRC07, based on previous contributions regarding the priorities expressed by the Commission, comments from the public consultation and from the workshop held in March 2005.
It was suggested that the final document should be approved before the European common proposals (ECPs) being produced at CEPT level are completed; that way the Opinion may be considered in the final result of this ongoing work.
The various delegations should submit their final comments on this document by 18 July, so that the group chairman can rework the final document in early September for approval at the next RSPG meeting. - Spectrum for scientific ends
France and the Netherlands asked the RSPG to study the possibility of adopting an Opinion on co-ordinated spectrum use for scientific ends in Europe.
After discussion the group decided to support this initiative, although some issues must still be resolved, such as how to balance spectrum access between commercial and non-commercial services.
A working group overseen by France and the Netherlands will study the various issues that remain open with a view to submitting the matter to the RSPG at a later date. - Switchover to digital broadcasting
The Commission gave a presentation on the recent ?Communication to the Council and to the Parliament on accelerating the transition in Europe? - COM (2005) 204 of 24 May 2005.
This Communication may be consulted at: European Commission - Information Society - Telecom - Communications & Reportshttp://ec.europa.eu/information_society/policy/ecomm/library/communications_reports/index_en.htm. - Other issues
Presentations were also given regarding ongoing work in CEPT and the European Commission.
