The 19th meeting of project team 1 of the Electronic Communications Committee (ECC PT1) was held on 10-12 January in Helsinki, Finland. This team is responsible for all issues involving the future evolution of IMT-2000 and systems beyond, and co-ordinates European contributions and its positions on spectrum-related, regulatory and sharing/compatibility matters under WP8F of the International Telecommunication Union Radiocommunications Sector (ITU-R). Particularly standing out is this group?s duty to prepare CEPT positions on items 1.4 and 1.9 of the 2007 World Radiocommunications Conference (WRC07).
The issue most discussed at the meeting concerned identification of spectrum for the future evolution of IMT-2000 and systems beyond (item 1.4 of WRC07). There were two distinct positions in the debate regarding the way to standardise systems beyond IMT-2000 (now designated as IMT-Advanced): having the process conducted by industry, considering the need for a rapid adjustment to market requirements, business goals, technological developments and operational needs; and defending that the IMT-Advanced standardisation process should be similar to the one followed for IMT-2000, in close collaboration with the ITU, given the comprehensive aspect sought for the system. This discussion is expected to continue during the next meetings.
Also noteworthy were the debates on additional spectrum for future IMT-2000 systems and systems beyond IMT-2000 below 862 MHz, specifically in the 450-470 MHz and 470-862 MHz sub-bands. After some discussion it was concluded that for the time being there was no data that would lead CEPT to support those bands as candidates for such systems.
Lastly, note that this group completed a study on UMTS compatibility with GSM900 and GSM1800, and that it will soon revise Recommendation ERC REC 01-01.
