1 Narrow Band Spectrum – Administrations View Stephen Limb BSc(Eng), MPhil, CEng, MIEE Radiocommunications Agency, UK

2 Overview Current UK Band Plans and ECA Table Narrow Band Trends, UK Narrow Band Technology ECC Decisions and Strategic Plan Conclusion

3 RA Spectrum Strategy 2002 “ For reasons of spectrum harmonisation within Europe, it is the Agency's intention to align all land mobile frequency bands by 2010 to the structure given in Annex 1 of CEPT Recommendation T/R ”

4 PMR/PAMR Bands (1) Band I Low Band UHF UHF Mid Band Sub 1 Sub 3 Band III Sub 2 HighBand P1 P3 P UHF1 UHF1 PUBLIC SAFETY UHF Dolphin PAMR (TETRA) 2 x 4MHz Airwave Project +others (TETRA) 2x5MHz Paging

5 PMR/PAMR Bands (2) PMR PMR TETRA TETRA PAMR TETRA TAPS TAPS PMR GSM-R GSM-R PMR PMR TETRA TETRA PAMR TETRA TAPS TAPS PMR GSM-R GSM-R

6

7 Band 1

8 Low Band

9 Mid Band

10 High Band

11 Band III

12 UHF1

13 UHF 2

14 UK PMR/PAMR Market 60,000 PMR Assignments 750,000 PMR Mobiles 2317 PAMR Assignments 52,510 PAMR Mobiles +1,000,000 PMR 446 Mobiles Others –Public Safety Communications –GSM-R –London Underground –Dolphin (40,000 Subscribers) PMR Contributes £1 to 2 Billion to UK GDP PAMR Contributes approximately £550Million UK GDP

15 Overview

16 Wide Area Private Business Radio Licences Overall there has been a steady decline of Wide Area PBR in the UK The main reasons seem to be:- –Migration to Cellular –Migration to PAMR –Change in UK General Licence (Not counted in the Dec–02 statistics - approximately Mobiles)

17 On-site Private Business Radio Licences

18 Wide Area PMR Data Licences wide area assignments In 2002, 2.5% use data Data usage is growing steadily

19 Local and Central Government

20 Bus and Coach

21 Taxi and Private Hire

22 PMR Technology Mobile Radio ModemMobile Data TerminalMobile 2- way handheld Professional PMR/Phone Trunked Radio systems PMR 446 ‘Walkie Talkies’

23 ERC/ECC Decisions (1) Category ERC/ECC Decision I mplementation GSM-R Designation and availability of frequency bands for railway purposes in the and MHz bands ( ECC/DEC/(02)05) Free circulation and use of GSM-R mobile terminals (ECC/DEC/(02)09) Exemption from individual licensing of GSM-R mobile terminals ( ECC/DEC/(02)10) Committed No info TETRA Exemption from Individual Licensing of TETRA Mobile Terminals ( ERC/DEC/(99)02) Free Circulation and Use of TETRA Civil Mobile Terminals ( ERC/DEC/(99)03) Frequency bands for the introduction of the TETRA System ( ERC/DEC/(96)04) Yes ERMES Frequency band to be designated for the coordinated introduction of the ERMES System ( ERC/DEC/(94)02) Exemption from Individual Licensing of ERMES paging receivers ( ERC/DEC/(98)23) Yes PMR 446 Harmonised frequency band to be designated for PMR 446 (ERC/DEC/(98)25) Exemption from Individual Licensing of PMR 446 Equipment (ERC/DEC/(98)26) Free circulation and use of PMR 446 equipment in CEPT member countries enlarging the field of application of ERC/DEC/(95)01 ( ERC/DEC/(98)27) Yes

24 ERC/ECC Decisions (2) Category ERC/ECC Decision Implementation Emergency Services Harmonised frequency bands to be designated for the DMO of the Digital Land Mobile Systems for the Emergency Services ( ERC/DEC/(01)19) Harmonised frequency bands to be designated for Air-Ground-Air operation (AGA) of the Digital Land Mobile Systems or the Emergency Services (ERC/DEC/(01)20) Harmonised frequency band to be designated for the introduction of the Digital Land Mobile System for the Emergency Services (ERC/DEC/(96)01) Yes Connection Interconnection of PMR and PAMR systems to a Public Telecommunication Network (ERC/DEC/(98)10) Yes Wide Band Frequency bands for the introduction of 200 kHz Wide Band Digital Land Mobile PMR/PAMR in the 400 MHz and 800/900 MHz bands (ECC/DEC/(03)01) Yes Narrow Band ECC Decision of 15 March 2002 on the availability of frequency bands for the introduction of Narrow Band Digital Land Mobile PMR/PAMR in the 400 MHz band (ECC/DEC/(02)03) ERC Decision of 12 March 2001 on the harmonised frequency band to be designated for the Direct Mode Operation (DMO) of the Digital Land Mobile Systems (ERC/DEC/(01)21) Committed Yes

25 Conclusions (1) Spectrum - UK desires to meet ECA Table –projects underway to align UHF1 and UHF2 –difficult to align congested bands –extensive existing narrow band usage Market –large base of existing narrow band users –some sectors growing, others declining –overall decline but growth in on site at UHF, wide area data at VHF

26 Conclusions (2) Technology –the future is digital - need to configure spectrum to allow introduction of current generation digital equipment, hence alignment –PMR446 a success, would like to introduce a digital equivalent –No current digital equipment manufactured in VHF, therefore a low priority for alignment (but majority of LM spectrum in VHF) ECC Decisions –We support the process and have implemented where we can and will continue to do so.