The 16th meeting of the Communications Committee (COCOM) working group on implementation of the regulatory framework for pan-European systems that supply mobile satellite services (MSS) in 2 GHz frequency bands was held last 9 July at offices of the European Commission (EC) in Brussels.
The representatives of the selected systems, the International Maritime Satellite Organisation (INMARSAT) and SOLARIS, gave a presentation in the first part of the meeting on the current state of the respective systems’ development and the level of authorisations granted to date by European Union (EU) member states. Note that both SOLARIS and INMARSAT have already obtained authorisation (or comfort letters) from most member states.
In the second part, in which only member state representatives took part, opinions were exchanged on the current status of authorisations either granted or in the process of being granted, as well as enforcement measures applied by some member states. There was some discussion about how complementary ground components (CGCs) are understood by each of the member states. As a result of that discussion COCOM will be presented with a proposal to submit a questionnaire on CGCs to the member states.
