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Annual Report and Accounts 2000-2001 |
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To seek improvement in global and regional spectrum management co-ordination to the benefit of the UK; and, through RSI, commercially to exploit the Agency's reputation and expertise through the provision of international consultancy services |
The Agency has continued to play an active part in the discussions on the reform of the ITU. In particular, Malcolm Johnson has chaired an international group considering a new entity for standardisation within the ITU framework. The Agency will closely follow this work through the ITU Council in preparation for the Plenipotentiary Conference in 2002. European preparations for the Council and the Plenipotentiary Conference, on all issues including reform, are the responsibility of a working group of CEPT, chaired by Mike Goddard.
The Agency led a UK delegation of about 60 to the World Radiocommunications Conference in May/June 2000 (WRC-2000). Staff from the Agency made up nearly half of the delegation. The UK supported almost all of the European Common Proposals for the WRC and did not submit any substantive proposals of its own. The outcome was a great success for UK and Europe, with only one notable failure related to our bid for more spectrum for the mobile-satellite service.
Preparations for the next WRC, to be held in mid-2003, have already started. The UK preparatory committee, chaired by RA, has met and co-ordinators have been appointed for each of the 40-plus agenda items. In Europe, the Conference Preparatory Group (CPG) has been set up, under French chairmanship. Terry Jeacock of the Agency holds a CPG vice-chairmanship and the chairmanship of a key project team.
The Agency led a large UK delegation to the ITU's World Telecommunications Standardization Assembly in autumn 2000 (WTSA-2000). This was the first time the Agency has led in this forum, having taken the responsibility from DTI's Communications and Information Industries Directorate in April 2000. A successful outcome was achieved on all four UK submissions and five UK co-signed European submissions. The UK led for Europe on a controversial proposal for a project group on IMT-2000 which resulted in the creation of a Special Study Group on this important subject. We achieved two chairmanships and four vice-chairmanships in significant ITU-T study groups, and a vice-chairmanship of the Telecommunications Standardization Advisory Group (TSAG), after difficult and protracted negotiations.
CISPR is an international committee concerned with the protection of radio services from interference. Peter Kerry from the Agency is the current CISPR president. The work of the committee involves developing and negotiating international acceptance of standards relating to emission limits. This is a growing area of work, with the major driving force being the use of the standards to support the implementation of the EU EMC Directive. Whilst much of CISPR's work has centred on updating existing standards, the main focus of activity this past year has been on modernising CISPR to reflect the changing and converging technology. As a result of this, it is expected that the 2001 Plenary meeting will endorse the establishment of a new group to handle the EMC aspect of all multimedia equipment.
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The Agency has continued to lead for the UK in the activities of the European Radiocommunications Committee (ERC) of CEPT. It holds one of the vice-chairmanships of the Radio Regulatory Working Group, and is actively involved in many of the ERC's other working groups and project teams.
CEPT is being restructured to reflect the impact of convergence in the telecommunications and radio sectors, and to enable the organisation to focus more on strategic issues. The Agency has been very active in the development of proposals which will be considered formally by the CEPT Plenary in September 2001. In particular, we successfully proposed an Implementation Group and Troika with UK membership. (The Troika comprises the three countries which will hold the CEPT Presidency for each of three successive years.) In June 2000, the Agency gained agreement for the UK to take on the Presidency of the CEPT. This will come into effect from October 2001 and the Agency's Chief Executive David Hendon will take on this role for 12 months.
European Telecommunications Standardisation Institute (ETSI)
The Agency has retained its pro-active stance in ETSI, which is a non-profit organisation whose mission is to produce radio and telecommunications standards with global applicability.
Olly Wheaton continued to chair the UK ETSI Members Conference and lead the UK delegation to the ETSI General Assembly. He also chairs the ETSI Committee TC-ERM (EMC and Radio Spectrum Matters) and the ETSI R&TTE Steering Committee responsible for coordination in the preparation of harmonised standards in ETSI in support of the R&TTE Directive.
Harmonised standards under the R&TTE Directive are the preferred route to the market and provide key spectrum management parameters required by the Agency. Harmonised standards have been developed in all of the radio groups within ETSI with overall coordination provided by the R&TTE Steering Committee.
The support for regulatory issues in ETSI is now accepted as a Strategic Objective, with TC-ERM as the lead technical body in this sector. In addition a proposal for the formation of a Public Interest Competence Centre within the Secretariat (to support the regulatory activities) is under consideration following an RA initiative.
Activities within TC-ERM, which provides the formal interface between CEPT and ETSI on spectrum issues, and ETSI and CENELEC on EMC issues, have included:
Other key interest areas for the Agency have included TETRA (digital trunked radio), BRAN (broadband access) and the associated IEEE activities, satellite earth stations, JTC Broadcast, TM4 (fixed links) and 3GPP, where the provision of harmonised standards has been a priority.
ETSI is collaborating with CENELEC and CEPT on the provision of standards for power line telecommunications (PLT) and on the EMC standards for cable and telecommunication systems such as xDSL (digital subscriber line), where the Agency has a keen interest in avoiding the generation of harmful interference.
Within a month of the Agency being formed in April 1990, I was transferred
to the Agency's RIS Nottingham Office and within 3 years I gained promotion
to District Manager. My immediate challenge as a manager was the setting
up of the office to handle local processing of Private Mobile Radio (PMR)
licences; a process previously carried out exclusively by Agency HQ staff.
This additional work changed the face of the local offices. Although the
Agency's district offices had always had direct contact with our customers,
the local processing of PMR licences significantly raised the profile
of the Agency's local offices. With the continued devolution of licensing
services from HQ, this In 1996 I was on the move again; as a result of a major management review in which 20 small District Offices were replaced by five Regional Offices. I found myself in Birmingham with a revised role and new job title, Operations Manager (North Midlands). Although my Birmingham experience was very pleasant, my family belongs in Yorkshire, so I was glad, after 8 months, to find myself back in Leeds as Operations Manager. The move back to Leeds reunited me with some old friends and the opportunity to work with new colleagues. A further change came about in 1999 when I was asked to step up on a temporary basis to Head of Region (Northeast England). This became a permanent posting last July. So far my 20-year career in Radiocommunications Regulation has provided me with a wide variety of challenges, although it is the latter 10 years within the Agency that has brought about the most significant changes. The Agency has given me the opportunity to progress and make a contribution to the way things are done, especially in promoting customer care. I have also been fortunate to work with so many friendly and talented colleagues from all areas of the Agency, in addition to having the pleasure of meeting so many interesting people from across the radiocommunications industry as a whole. |
In the context of the 1999 Communications Review, the Commission presented to the Council the texts of six draft Directives and a draft Decision on Spectrum Policy. The texts of the basic "Framework" Directive and the "Authorisation" Directive have been negotiated. These have important implications for spectrum management and generally reflect UK priorities. Among other things, they will help to ensure greater transparency in authorisation of use of the spectrum, clarify situations when auctions are permissible, and permit the use of spectrum trading. Other parts of the package are related to telecommunications access, interconnection, provision of universal service, data protection and privacy.
The draft spectrum Decision prepared by the European Commission contains a framework for addressing strategic spectrum policy issues throughout the EC. Many of the detailed proposals were welcomed by the UK and indeed some are clearly aligned with Agency practice. However others were not acceptable, as they would permit the Commission to adopt harmonisation measures through delegated procedures in areas which the UK believes should be subject to full political agreement. The Agency took the lead in preparing the UK line and clearing this with Ministers and Parliament. Several meetings of EU committees in Brussels have resulted in revised drafts which appear to be more acceptable to the UK.
The Agency oversaw the successful transition to the Radio Equipment and Telecommunications Terminal Equipment (R&TTE) Directive, which was implemented into UK law on 8th April 2000. This European Directive, which incorporates the requirements of the EMC and Low Voltage Directives, harmonises the laws in Member States of the European Union for the placing on the market of both radio and telecommunications terminal equipment. The intended benefits of this deregulatory measure include a reduction in the time and costs involved for manufacturers in bringing their products to market, and the removal of de-facto trade barriers between Member States. These benefits are now being realised and the Agency is continuing to play a full part in maximising them through participation in the relevant EU policy groups.
The DTI, in consultation with the Agency, confirmed a number of Notified Bodies which can assist manufacturers in the assessment of the requirements of the Directive. In addition, the Agency has continued to provide support and advice to industry during the transition to the new arrangements, most notably through a series of R&TTE workshops. Working closely with DTI colleagues, Agency staff have responded to enquiries from industry and offered help and guidance throughout the introduction of the new legislation.
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1992 World Administrative Radio Conference (WARC) 1992
World radio conferences take place every two or three years, but the 1992 one, held in Malaga - Torremolinos, stood out for two reasons. It was at that conference that spectrum was first identified for what was then known as FPLMTS - future public land mobile telecommunications systems - but which would eventually be known as 3G. This demonstrates the sort of timescale that is required for long term planning, from international agreement, through standardisation and technology development to eventual service implementation. The 1992 conference was also a turning point in that it was the first time that European countries had worked as one to establish common proposals for the conference and present a common voice at the conference - something that has been happening ever since. |
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The Agency has provided resources for several consultancy projects managed by RSI, the RA/CMG partnership. Projects have been undertaken with several administrations including India, Egypt, Greece, several Eastern European countries and Nigeria. In the case of Nigeria, the assistance provided resulted in a highly successful auction of licences for second-generation cellular systems and all concerned were praised by the Nigerian president. Although not a formal RSI contract, the Agency has also been working with Poland on an EU "twinning" project. The UK lead is held by Oftel, with RA providing spectrum management advice.
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| Stephen Bailey, Tony Evans and Helen Damms of RSI, with their economic advisers and the Nigerian legal adviser, at the successful completion of the Nigerian spectrum auction |
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I
have been involved with the regulation of the radio spectrum since 1981,
initially working for the Post Office/British Telecom (BT) as a field
officer tracing and resolving radio interference. In 1984 I transferred
to the DTI Radio Investigation Service (RIS) in Leeds when the Department
of Trade and Industry took on the work previously carried out by BT.