Helsinki hosted last 23-27 May the 85th meeting of the CEPT working group on Frequency Management (WG FM), chaired by Thomas Weilacher of Germany and attended by 98 delegates from 38 CEPT administrations, the European Commission (EC), the European Communications Office (ECO), the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) and 18 international organisations.
A summary of major decisions made at the meeting follows:
- Approval of two draft CEPT reports concerning the sixth revision of the EC Decision on short range devices (SRD) and video connections for programme making and special events (PMSE) in 2700-2900 MHz; these documents will be submitted to the ECC for final approval and publication;
- Approval of a new ECC Decision and revision of three, respectively on: (i) broadband systems for public protection and disaster relief (BB PPDR); (ii) PPDR in 380-470 MHz; (iii) annexes 1 and 2 of the ECO Frequency Information System Decision on terminology for attributions and applications; and (iv) citizens’ band. These decisions were approved for submission to the ECC for final approval and publication;
- Completion of a draft ECC decision meant to revoke a decision on Automatic Identification System channels in very high frequency; the text was approved for submission to public consultation;
- Approval for publication of the revision of Recommendation T/R 25-08 on criteria for planning and coordination of frequencies for terrestrial mobile service in 29.7-470 MHz;
- Approval for placement in public consultation of the revision of Recommendations (11)06 on BEM (now includes 700 MHz) and 25-10 on audio and video PMSE, as well as a new Recommendation on cross-border coordination for BB PPDR systems in 698-791 MHz;
- Approval for publication of revisions of the following annexes to ERC Recommendation 70-03 on SRD:
- Annex 5, Transport and Traffic Telematics; includes a new entry for helicopter obstacle-detection radars in 76-77 GHz;
- Annex 6, Radiodetermination applications; makes clear this annex’s scope, to avoid incorrect use by P-P and P-MP applications;
- Annex 10, Radio microphone applications including assistive listening device, wireless audio and multimedia streaming systems; merges the above annexes 13 and 10;
- Annex 11, radio-frequency identification equipment; reflects the channelling proposal and technical conditions for the 865-868 MHz band;
- Appendix 5, duty cycle categories; makes clear the definition of duty cycle, making it stronger and more unambiguous; - Conclusion and approval of the revised European Common Allocation (ECA) table, which now considers results from the 2015 World Radiocommunication Conference (WRC-15); the ECA will be published after the ECC meets, as it contains references to documents that require final ECC approval.
The next ordinary meeting of WG FM will be held this coming 17-21 October, followed by a civilian/military meeting on 23-24 November.
