Brussels hosted last 4-5 October the 21st meeting of the Radio Spectrum Committee.
The European Commission (EC) presented a revision of the EC draft decision on harmonisation of the technical conditions required by mobile communication on board aircraft (MCA) systems, so as to prevent interference in land mobile systems. This draft decision will be subject to regulatory procedure. A complementary recommendation on MCA authorisation is currently being debated in the Communications Committee.
Regarding the Wireless Access Policy for Electronic Communications Services (WAPECS), CEPT presented per the EC mandate an interim progress report. While the report indicates that it is possible to approximate technological neutrality for all frequency bands covered by the mandate, the member States consider that in this phase it is still too early to make conclusions about the list and technical conditions of the WAPECS bands.
Based on CEPT's work vis-à-vis the standing mandate to update the technical annex to the decision on short-range devices (SRD) - Decision 2006/771/EC - the Commission presented a proposal to amend said decision. This first updating of the technical annex will be finalised at the next RSC meeting in December, given that the Commission also wants to discuss with CEPT some issues concerning the formulation of technical elements in the decision.
Regarding broadband wireless access (BWA), the Commission presented a draft revision of the EC decision on the 3.4-3.8 GHz band. This draft decision will be finalised once the Commission's internal procedures and results of the 2007 World Radiocommunications Conference (WRC-07) for this band are known.
The Commission also presented an orientation document on new regulations for ultra wide band (UWB) technology, including the mass market and specific applications.
It was agreed that CEPT would supply additional technical specifications for ground and wall probing radar (GPR/WPR) and building material analysis (BMA) systems, as well as a complementary report on work progress.
The second annual SARA report was presented, as per Decision 2005/50/EC on short range anti-collision radar (SRR) for vehicles in 24 GHz, which revealed that these devices' penetration is below the critical threshold, so no action is necessary. The report was accepted by the RSC.
As for the state of implementation of Commission decisions, verification actions were undertaken with a view to helping ensure the rapid application of the decisions on harmonisation, detecting any specific problem at national level and supplying the interested parties with information on the state of implementation of EC harmonisation measures at national level.
The European Commission also supplied the RSC with an orientation document on how to be formally notified about the implementation of its decisions.
The EC presented a revision of the draft decision for opening the L band (1.4 GHz) on a basis of technological neutrality. The debate revealed significant opposition to the proposal presented, as revision of the special Maastricht agreement is considered to have ''provided a sufficient legally binding framework for Europe''. The Commission did not agree with this premise, as it holds that the agreement provides the technical parameters necessary to prevent interference on borders, while an EC decision would additionally guarantee that the indicated frequency band would be made available at a given date throughout the European Union, giving the multimedia mobile industry clear prospects for investment in that band.
Finally, and regarding the digital dividend, CEPT presented the second (''B'') report that covers the co-existence of digital terrestrial television systems (DVB-T) with mobile communication networks in the UHF band. This report showed that coexistence is possible as long as mobile communications are grouped in contiguous bands. CEPT will complement this report with new technical work, and also prepare a ''roadmap'' to show how the results of its studies can be implemented in a co-ordinated and flexible manner.
The next RSC meeting is scheduled for this coming 12-13 December in Brussels.
