The 44th ECC meeting was held from 28 February to 3 March in Dublin, attended by 70 participants representing 30 administrations, the European Commission (EC), European Communications Office (ECO) and 14 observers.
The following decisions stand out among the issues considered at the Committee’s meeting:
- Final approval of revised Decision (05)(09) on free circulation and use of Earth stations on board vessels operating in fixed-satellite service networks in the frequency bands 5925–6425 MHz (Earth-to-space) and 3700–4200 MHz (space-to-Earth), whose public consultation ended in January, without comments, and upon inclusion in this revision of relevant results from the last World Radiocommunication Conference (WRC-15);
- Final approval of revised Decision ECC/DEC/(11)01 on protection of the Earth exploration satellite service (passive) in the 1400–1427 MHz band, whose public consultation ended in January, without comments, and upon inclusion in this revision of relevant WRC-15 results;
- Final approval of revised Decision ECC/DEC/(06)10 on transitional arrangements for the fixed service and tactical radio relay systems in the bands 1980-2010 MHz and 2170-2200 MHz in order to facilitate the harmonised introduction and development of systems in the mobile satellite service including those supplemented by a complementary ground component. A total of 21 administrations indicated their intention to implement this decision. Portugal indicated that it would not do so, given that it has not implemented the original decision, as we do not have fixed service use in that band. Russia’s position was identical. It was agreed that the Frequency Management working group (WG FM) would again review the decision within two years and examine the need to maintain it;
- Final approval of the new Decision ECC/DEC/(17)01 on withdrawal of ECC Decision (01)01 on phasing out analogue CT1 and CT1+ applications in the 900 MHz band and ECC Decision (01)02 on phasing out digital CT2 applications in the 900 MHz band;
- Final approval of new Decision ECC/DEC/(17)02 on withdrawal of Decision ECTRA/DEC/(97)02 on harmonisation of authorisation conditions and coordination of procedures in the field of satellite personal communications Services (S-PCS) in Europe, operating within the bands 1610-1626.5 MHz, 2483.5-2500 MHz, 1980-2010 MHz and 2170-2200 MHz;
- Final approval of the addendum to CEPT Report no. 59 on possibilities for a harmonisation approach for the bands 870-876 MHz and 915-921 MHz, also taking into account new opportunities in the band 862-868 MHz, in response to the EC permanent mandate on annual updating of the technical annex of the Commission Decision on the technical harmonisation of radio spectrum for use by short range devices (SRD) – 6th update of the SRD mandate. Various administrations (Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Austria and Belgium) had a statement of reservation included in the plenary meeting minutes, based on the need to protect primary services in the bands in question. The Association of Professional Wireless Production Technologies also presented reservations.
The plenary session elected by acclamation Jaime Afonso (Portugal/ANACOM) and Sergey Pastukh (Russia) to a second three-year term as ECC vice-chairs. Also, WG FM chair Thomas Weilacher (Germany) was re-elected to a second term.
The EC presented its mandate regarding the fifth mobile generation (FG) (Mandate to CEPT to develop harmonised technical conditions for spectrum use in support of the introduction of next-generation (5G) terrestrial wireless systems in the Union), for which allocation of the 3.5 GHz and 26 GHz bands is being studied. The roadmap on ongoing CEPT activities concerning 5G was updated, taking into account the current situation presented by the chairs of WG FM, the Conference Preparatory Group (CPG) and project team 1 (PT1) on International Mobile Telecommunications, as well as the proposals from the ECC Steering Group. Agreement was also reached to produce an ECC report meant to provide administrations with guidelines regarding defragmentation of the 3400-3800 MHz bands.
In the wake of the complaint from the European Meteorological Services Network to the EC (DG Connect and DG Grow), the question of interference of radio local area networks (RLANs) in weather radars in the 5 GHZ band in most European countries was debated at length; it is mainly due to insufficient monitoring and control, rather than to regulatory shortcomings or the sharing mechanisms in question. Several actions were identified which can help mitigate the problem; the ECC should inform other relevant organisations, namely RSCOM, TCAM and ADCO RED.
A multi-country (Belarus, Estonia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Russia, Slovenia and Switzerland) proposal was put forward with a view to mandating WG FM to harmonise technical conditions for wireless access systems including RLAN (WAS/RLAN) in the 6 GHz band. Despite the reservations of several administrations, including Portugal, the new work item would be approved with the support of Austria, Norway and the United Kingdom.
ECO director Per Christensen of Denmark provided the plenary session with information about various agenda points, namely the ECC communication strategy, whose first newsletter for the current year should be published in April, including three articles on the role of sharing and compatibility studies, activities of equipment for programme making and special events, and e-call numbering, bearing in mind the discussion at the 31 January seminar in Copenhagen. Further issues are planned for July and November; the Office is open to suggestions about topics to develop.
The ECC also noted the plan for ECO training sessions and seminars in 2017.
The vice-chair of the working group on Numbering and Networks, Liz Greenberg of the United Kingdom, gave a presentation on the group’s activities, namely the conclusions of the last meeting, held in November, and results from the public consultation on ECC Report 264 on feasibility of an ECO-hosted directory of E.164 numbers to facilitate contact between PSAPs in different European countries, which only received seven responses. The ECC should examine the matter again at the next plenary meeting in June, after dissemination of the legal opinion requested by the ECO Council and an internal document that will consider the budgetary aspect of the Office’s eventual management of this emergency services directory.
The plenary session reviewed the ECC rules of procedure, especially the appointment of chairs and vice-chairs. Sweden should present a new proposal to amend article 8 in order to allow more rotation in the nomination of project team and forum group chairs.
The request to have a letter of understanding (LoU) signed by the ECC and the 5G Infrastructure Association, which includes the 5G Infrastructure Public Private Partnership and with whom there is already a cooperation relationship, was debated and approved. The chair also informed the plenary session about the LoU with EUROCONTROL, which should be completed after examination by that organisation’s legal department. Germany considered that the growing number of observers may lead to logistical problems when organising plenary meetings. The next ECC Steering Group should consider the question, reassessing the updated list of current LoUs and memorandums of understanding.
The next ECC plenary meeting will be held this coming 27-30 June in Rotterdam, the Netherlands.
