The 33rd meeting of ECC project team 1 was held in the Spanish city of Seville last 15-17 September, chaired by Peter Scheele. ECC PT1 is in charge of all issues concerning international mobile telecommunications (IMT) and co-ordinates European contributions and its positions on spectrum planning and sharing/compatibility matters in the scope of working group 5D of the International Telecommunication Union Radiocommunication Sector (ITU-R). The PT is also taking part along with project team 42 (PT 42) of the ECC Spectrum Engineering working group (WG SE) and with the TG4 group in drawing up the response to the second European Commission (EC) mandate on the digital dividend. It is also in charge of the response to the new EC mandate for 900/1800 MHz.
One of the top issues facing PT1 is the development of IMT channels in the 790-862 MHz band (second task of the second European Commission mandate on the digital dividend). At its last meeting (June 2009), the ECC adopted for public consultation – from 1 July to 6 September 2009 – the following documents produced by PT1:
- Proposed ECC Decision (09)EE “Harmonised Conditions for Mobile/Fixed Communications Networks Operating in the Band 790–862 MHz”;
- Proposed CEPT Report 31 “Frequency (Channelling) Arrangements for the 790–862 MHz Band”.
The comments received in the public consultation (23 for the proposed decision and 16 for the proposed report) were considered by PT1 and some changes made, in conformity. Note that the proposed duplex gap is kept in 11 MHz (involves a 1 MHz guard band in 790 MHz) and that annex 2 of the decision is maintained (there were calls for it to be removed). The comments to annex 3 of the decision will be dealt with by WG SE PT 42, basically to validate technical conditions based on BEM (block edge mask).
The report on development of IMT channels for the 3400-3800 MHz band was updated and the need (or not) to revise some ECC decisions discussed. Regarding the new EC mandate for 900/1800 MHz, some work was carried out, also by correspondence. One of the questions is to know whether other technologies exist beyond LTE (long term evolution) which are candidates for the 900 and 1800 MHz bands. PT1 concluded that Wimax technology may also become a candidate, but for that to happen the required technical parameters have to be sent to enable development of studies to respond to the mandate’s second task by mid-November 2009.
A number of co-existence studies were also considered, specifically between multicarrier GSM base station (MC-GSM BTS) systems and other systems, compatibility between mobile systems and future communication systems (FRS) in the 960 MHz band, and also development of a new methodology for border co-ordination, given the development of mobile systems in adjacent bands and with different access modes such as frequency division multiplexing (FDD) and time division multiplexing (TDD). Note also that the report on MC-GSM BTS co-existence should be completed by November 2009.
