The 10th meeting of the ECC was held in Sorrento, Italy, on 14-18 March, focusing particularly on the following issues and decisions:
- Changes to the RoP
Amendments to the ECC Rules of Procedure (RoP) were approved, namely to article 10, in order to allow a new designation for reports drawn up by the ECC and based on European Commission (EC) mandates. They will henceforth use the designation ?CEPT Report?, though this must still be approved by the CEPT Assembly.
Article 12 was also modified to create the support needed for ECC decisions to include reference to the concept of technological neutrality.
- Final approval of decisions
After lengthy debate and some controversy, the final version of the decision on ?Harmonised Use of Spectrum for IMT2000/ UMTS in the 2500-2690 MHz Frequency Band? (ECC/DEC/(05)05) was approved. Some administrations expressed reservations as they held that the extent of the term ?designation? was not duly safeguarded.
Decision ECC/DEC/(05)01 on ?use of the 27.5-29.5 GHz band by fixed service and non-co-ordinated earth stations of fixed satellite service? was approved as well.
Also approved were decisions ECC/DEC/(05)02 on ?use of the 169.4-169.8125 MHz frequency band? and ECC/DEC/(05)03 on ?elimination of decision ERC/DEC(94)02 which designated frequency bands for the European paging system ERMES? (European radio message system).
Lastly, following on decisions from the previous meeting, ?amendments? were approved for two ECC decisions on free movement and use of equipment, respectively ECC/DEC(05)06 and ECC/DEC/(05)07.
- Final reports responding to EC mandates
The final report to send to the Commission on ?Broadband ? UWB ? Applications? was adopted. However, a decision was also made to continue the work of the group overseeing this topic, as the results obtained to date do not yet enable the attainment of ?regulation? in Europe of such applications, which is intended by the end of 2005.
- WG RA presidency and Committee vice-presidencies
The Luxembourg representative was elected president of the Regulatory Affairs working group (WG RA) for the period of one year; the Luxembourg administration stated that it could not provide ?secretariat? support for this presidency, which should be solicited from the European Radiocommunications Office (ERO).
Per Christensen of Denmark was re-elected as Committee vice-president, while Philippe Horisberger of Switzerland was elected for the first time.
- ECC working groups
The ECC?s various working groups and project teams (PTs) presented their respective reports and working programmes: Frequency Management working group (WG FM), Spectrum Engineering group (WG SE), Numbering, Names and Addressing group (WG NNA), WG RA, the group preparing for the second session of the Regional Radiocommunications Conference on the planning of digital terrestrial broadcasting (WG RRC06), Conference Preparatory Group (CPG) and the project teams PT1, PT7, PT8 and TG3.
Noteworthy was the acceptance of PT7?s proposal to reassess the role of WG RA in the ECC context and its interaction with the other working groups, bearing in mind that the ?issues? involving the free movement of equipment are nowadays ?more? in the European Commission sphere. This subject will be further debated in PT7.
Also standing out was the establishment of a joint working group by the Frequency Management group (WG FM) and the Spectrum Engineering group (WG SE), with the aim of developing an ?appropriate framework for the development of fixed wireless access (FWA) around 5.8 GHz, and to study all issues related to broadband WIMAX uses in various frequency bands?.
The ECC will next meet on 20-24 June in Reykjavik, Iceland.
