Oslo hosted on 27-29 June the 21st meeting of project team 1 of the Electronic Communications Committee (ECC PT1), which was attended by 85 participants representing administrations, operators and manufacturers along with observers from the European Commission, the Inter-American Telecommunications Commission (CITEL), UMTS Forum and other organisations. PT1 covers all issues concerning the future evolution of IMT-2000 and systems beyond. It co-ordinates the positions of Europe and its positions vis-à-vis spectrum, regulatory and sharing/compatibility issues under WP 8F of the International Telecommunications Radiocommunication Sector (ITU-R). Particularly noteworthy is this group?s responsibility for preparing the CEPT positions for items 1.4 and 1.9 of the 2007 World Radiocommunication Conference (WRC-07).
The meeting served particularly to prepare the European positions on item 1.4 of the upcoming WRC: analysis of spectrum issues associated with the future development of IMT-2000 and systems beyond. After some debate it was possible to reach agreement on revising the existing Brief on the matter. Noteworthy was the introduction of points indicating that the identification of additional spectrum for IMT should focus on the terrestrial component. Also, regarding spectrum in the 470-862 MHz band, no position should be taken until the results of the last Regional Radiocommunication Conference (RRC-06) have been studied.
ECC PT1 also approved a proposed decision to enable implementation of UMTS (Universal Mobile Telecommunications Systems) in the 900 and 1800 MHz bands. The aim is for this decision to be routed to the upcoming September meeting of the Frequency Management working group (WG FM), in order to be approved for public consultation. In this regard a preliminary version of the report on the compatibility of UMTS 900/1800 with systems operating in adjacent bands (such as DECT, GSM-R and emitting microphones) has been presented.
Lastly, the work to revise recommendation ERC/REC 01-01 on UMTS border co-ordination was finalised at this meeting. The new version basically modifies the co-ordination limit levels, maintaining the methodology used in the previous ERC/REC 01-01.
The compatibility studies cover diverse areas such as digital television (DVB) and fixed satellite service (FSS). Debate on the subject is in the early phase, as the IMT-Advanced technical parameters needed for the studies are still being defined.
