Lisbon hosted last 5-8 February the 7th meeting of ECC TG4, whose final aim was to produce the third and last report (Report C) that the group has been charged with preparing in reply to the EC mandate concerning various aspects associated to the possible Digital Dividend.
The report in question will assess the possibility of using non-harmonised spectrum between DVB-T (digital terrestrial television) assignments and adjudications, the so-called white spots, by new/future applications or services. Significantly, a decision was made not to include a concrete definition of the term white spot, as it is up to each administration to ascertain whether or not a white spot exists in a given area of the respective country. If there were a precise definition, the European Commission might be tempted to impose some concrete usage in a given region as per that definition. It was thus decided to only include a broad explanation of the concept. There was, however, consensus on the decision to make it very clear in the report that any new/future application that eventually uses those white spots would always be on a basis of non-protection and non-interference.
Lastly, the participants updated the technical roadmap, which includes various technical options and scenarios for optimising the digital dividend.
