Enterprise
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Enterprise
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International Telecommunication Union The Agency has responsibility for leading for the UK in all aspects of the work of the ITU and has continued to play an active role in each of its three sectors: the Standardisation Sector (ITU-T), the Development Sector (ITU-D) and in particular the Radiocommunication Sector (ITU-R). The Agency chairs the three consultative committees co-ordinating UK involvement in these sectors. The committees are open to all UK-registered Sector Members and government departments with an interest in the work of the ITU. The UK has been particularly active in the efforts to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of the ITU, and was responsible for many of the recommendations of the Reform Group which were endorsed by the ITU Council in 2001. A CEPT project team, chaired by Malcolm Johnson, produced for the first time a set of European Common Proposals for a World Telecommunication Development Conference (WTDC). This conference was held in Istanbul in March 2002 where the Agency led a UK delegation of around 20 delegates. In all, there were approximately 1,300 delegates participating in the Conference including about 60 Ministers. All the European proposals were accepted. Preparations for the next World Radiocommunication Conference (WRC-03), to be held in June 2003, are well under way. The UK preparatory committee, chaired by RA, has met and co-ordinators have been appointed for each of the 40-plus agenda items. In CEPT, the Conference Preparatory Group (CPG) has made good progress and a number of draft proposals are being developed. The UK will host the next CPG in Jersey in June 2002. Although the WRC-03 has a very lengthy agenda, many of the issues are being resolved in the various ITU-R preparatory groups which are working continuously to provide the basis for the report of the Conference Preparatory Meeting for WRC-03, to be held in Geneva in December 2002. The Agency is making a significant contribution to the progress being made in these groups. European Conference of Postal and Telecommunications Administrations (CEPT) CEPT has been restructured to reflect the impact of convergence in the telecommunications and radiocommunications sectors, and to enable the organisation to focus more on strategic issues. The Agency has been very active in the development of the proposals to reform CEPT which were considered formally and implemented by the CEPT Plenary Assembly in September 2001. These reforms included the establishment of a CEPT Presidency and the UK assumed the inaugural Presidency of CEPT on 1 October 2001 for a period of one year, with our then Chief Executive, David Hendon, appointed as CEPT President. Achievements of the UK Presidency so far are:
The first Assembly of the new CEPT was held in Brighton in March this year, and endorsed these actions as well as the European Common Proposals for the ITU Plenipotentiary Conference and the World Telecommunication Development Conference. The Assembly also agreed to the Presidency seeking a new Memorandum of Understanding with the European Commission and work has already started on this. The Assembly also discussed how CEPT should contribute to the preparations for the United Nations World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) in Geneva in 2003 and in Tunis in 2005. The Agency shares responsibility for UK input to the ECC with the DTI Communications and Information Industries Business Group. Ms Jo Madigan of the Agency holds the Chairmanship of the ECC Radio Regulatory Working Group (WGRR). The UK will host the next CEPT Assembly in Cardiff on 10-11 September 2002. |
Mike Goddard signing on behalf of the CEPT President (David Hendon) a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between CEPT and ATU |
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CISPR is the international committee for EMC standards, which protect radio services from interference. This year the annual CISPR meeting was hosted by the Agency in Bristol. We were successful in gaining acceptance for our proposals to restructure CISPR. Plans include the creation of a new committee to deal with EMC issues relating to multi-media equipment, which will result in standards that are better able to deal with the product convergence that is occurring in the ITE and television industries. This will benefit both spectrum managers and industry in the medium and long term. These changes were the final step in reshaping CISPR to give radio interests a bigger voice, and to improve the focus on the task of protecting radio services. After six years in office, Peter Kerry of RA was unanimously re-elected as CISPR President for a further three-year period. European Telecommunications Standardisation Institute (ETSI) The Agency has maintained its activities in ETSI, whose purpose is to provide Europe with radio and telecommunications standards with global applicability. Olly Wheaton of RA heads the UK delegation to the ETSI General Assembly, and chairs the UK ETSI Members Conference, which co-ordinates and agrees UK interests for Assembly meetings. Olly also chairs the ETSI Technical Committee TC-ERM, dealing with EMC and radio spectrum matters. Close co-ordination between ETSI and CEPT on spectrum issues has been maintained with the lead taken by the TC-ERM Radio Matters working group (ERM-RM). Olly Wheaton also chaired the annual CEPT-ETSI co-ordination meeting with active participation from the European Commission directorates DG Enterprise and DG InfoSoc. The Agency, with Olly Wheaton assisted by Malcolm Johnson, took the lead for ETSI at the Radio Standardisation (RAST) meeting held in Sydney, Australia, during November 2001. RAST provides a forum for co-ordination between the ITU-R and the regional standardisation bodies. Malcolm Johnson led a group that redefined the role of RAST and its sister body GSC (Global Standardisation Collaboration), bringing them together in a revised GSC framework as GRSC (Radiocommunication) and GTSC (Telecommunication). The Agency has also maintained its participation in discussions on DECT (digital cordless telephony), TETRA (digital trunked radio), BRAN (broadband access), SES (Satellite Earth Stations), JTC Broadcast, TM4 (Fixed links), MESA (public safety) and 3GPP (3rd Generation digital cellular radio), where the provision of harmonised standards has been a priority. ETSI is maintaining active collaboration with CENELEC in a number of areas including the integration of radio transmitters in non-radio equipment and the provision of standards for power line telecommunications (PLT). A joint ETSI/CENELEC group is responding to the Commission mandate for harmonised EMC standards for power line, cable and telecommunication systems, for which the Agency has a published national regulation, in order to avoid the generation of harmful interference. European Union Implementation of EU Electronic Communication Directives The package of Directives and the Spectrum Decision (Decision of the European Parliament and of the Council on a Regulatory Framework for Radio Spectrum Policy in the European Community) was agreed between the European Parliament and Council on 12 December 2001. It is expected to come into force on 24 April 2002. Measures involving obligations on all Member States will come into force 15 months after that date. The package comprises the following:
It aims to provide a modern deregulatory structure to encourage the development and provision of all electronic communication networks and services to the benefit of consumers and the single market and to embrace convergence. The Agency is in the process of ensuring that it will be fully compliant with the Directives and the Spectrum Decision in advance of the implementation date. This is likely, over time, to represent a substantial new area of work. Our priority will be to seek to ensure that the new EU mechanisms do not duplicate the ongoing technical work of CEPT but add value to the spectrum management process within Europe by concentrating on key strategic issues with a European-wide dimension. Radio & Telecommunication Terminal Equipment Directive (R&TTED) The R&TTED is now fully implemented within the UK and has been broadly welcomed by the radio industry as a simplified means of bringing new products to the European market. The Agency has continued to work closely with industry to ensure that UK manufacturers and suppliers achieve the full benefit from harmonised standards for radio terminal equipment and, where available, common frequency plans. The Agency has also been pleased to be invited, as a result of the successful introduction of the R&TTED in the UK, to assist the European Commission in its discussions with non-EU countries regarding mutual recognition agreements as a means of identifying opportunities for expanding the markets for compliant radio terminal equipment. |
(L-R) Jan Mutai (ATU), Knut Smaaland (Norway) and Mike Goddard (RA) at the MoU signing ceremony |
Spectrum Strategy As the pressures on the spectrum grow, the task of managing it strategically becomes ever more important. It is necessary to find spectrum for a growing range of commercial services, while, at the same time, ensuring that demand for spectrum for social, cultural, hobby and scientific use can continue to be met. The task is also becoming more complex as new technologies emerge, and existing services (such as broadcasting and telecommunications) continue to converge. It is also increasingly necessary to plan ahead, as the lead time for the introduction of new services can be considerable. For example, the first spectrum allocation for what has become known as the Third Generation Mobile service was agreed internationally in 1992 – some 10 years before the anticipated launch of the first commercial 3G services in late 2002. The Agency sets out its strategic plan for spectrum management in its UK Spectrum Strategy which seeks to provide a route-map for future spectrum use. The 6th edition, (Strategy for the Future Use of the Radio Spectrum in the UK), is planned to be published in May 2002. The Strategy has been produced in close collaboration with other Government Departments responsible for managing parts of the spectrum, particularly the Ministry of Defence, which is responsible for the management of military spectrum, amounting to about 28% of the total. The latest edition of the Strategy is both more substantial, and more forward-looking, than its predecessors. The Agency aims, through the Spectrum Strategy, to anticipate future spectrum needs and to seek to indicate how those needs can be met, although specific proposals for changes in allocation or for the licensing of new services will normally be the subject of separate public consultation. Decisions on what spectrum should be made available and for which services are taken, wherever possible, in close consultation with industry and other spectrum users, both through the Agency's regular consultation mechanisms and through specific consultations on individual spectrum allocation decisions. The views of the independent Spectrum Management Advisory Group (see below) have also had an important influence on the UK Spectrum Strategy. The main purpose of publishing the Strategy is to give our customers in the radio-using community an indication of the changes they can expect to see and indeed those areas where no changes are likely. An important change, this year, was to publish the Strategy in draft on the Agency's website in October and invite comments from users. A number of helpful comments were received, which have been reflected wherever possible in the final published text. Other comments will be fully taken into account in future editions. This year's Strategy has also gone further than its predecessors in highlighting what we see as the likely key growth areas in spectrum use in coming years. These are:
As ever, it will be necessary to balance increased demand in these areas with a continuing high level of demand for many other services, such as Private Mobile Radio (including that used for the emergency services) sound and television broadcasting, defence, science services and hobby use. The Spectrum Strategy also explains the sort of trade-offs that the Agency faces in seeking to manage spectrum, such as those between commercial and non-commercial, licensed and licence-exempt and satellite and terrestrial use. Some of the key spectrum management issues which the Agency is currently dealing with (many described more fully in elsewhere in this report) include:
There will undoubtedly be further major challenges in the future. At the moment, the Agency's approach to the development of its spectrum strategy is based on trying to look ahead as far as possible, including through its scenario planning exercise, and seeking to agree internationally those harmonised allocations which we think will be required for new services. However, as technologies develop and converge, it may be increasingly difficult and perhaps undesirable for spectrum managers to seek to mandate in detail how spectrum will be used. The Agency notes the recommendation of the Independent Review of Spectrum Management that it will become increasingly necessary to manage spectrum in a flexible way, permitting operators in the market to decide on the optimum use to be made of spectrum within broadly-agreed categories and subject to suitable safeguards for other users. This will be a major challenge for the future development of our spectrum strategy. The communications sector is characterised by rapid and unpredictable change. One of the challenges facing the Agency is to understand the drivers of change and to make spectrum available dynamically for innovation and growth. One of the key drivers influencing demand for spectrum is the process of convergence. Telecommunications, broadcasting and computing are coming together using a common digital technology and language. New services are becoming possible as the boundaries between hitherto distinct technologies erode and disappear. To help plan ahead, the Agency has adopted the technique of scenario planning. Scenarios provide a range of alternative, but equally plausible, visions of the future and so provide a more robust and informed basis for strategic planning. In 2000, the Agency commissioned the development of a set of scenarios to "map the future" of convergence and spectrum management for the decade ahead. These were based on a programme of interviews and workshops with key players from across the communications industry, Government agencies and academia. The four convergence scenarios are:
Scenario planning has proved a valuable tool, encouraging stakeholders to discuss the future, compare possible developments, and analyse implications for policy. The convergence scenarios were used to develop the latest edition of the UK Spectrum Strategy, and have also been installed at the FutureFocus facility at the DTI and used in a number of workshop sessions addressing specific strategic issues and convergence-related topics. To further enhance and develop the usefulness of scenario planning for the future, the Radiocommunications Agency has commenced a Scenario Planning, Evaluation and Review project aimed at:
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The 2002 Spectrum Strategy, to be produced in website, print and CD ROM versions |
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450-470 MHz band alignment project The focus of this project is the harmonisation of the UK's frequency use within the band with that of our European neighbours. The UHF2 band covers all frequencies from 450-470 MHz, and services operating in this band in the UK do not currently operate on the same plan as most of the rest of Europe. The migration of Home Office services out of this band by the end of 2004, and the subsequent migration of Scottish Office services at a later date, gives us an unprecedented opportunity to address this problem. The three main challenges that we need to meet are:
A major step in the planning work this year has been to undertake a comprehensive audit of frequency usage in the band to assess what the most effective band plan will be. In October 2001 questionnaires were sent to over 9000 users of this band requesting information on how the alignment project will affect their business. At the closing date 22% of questionnaires had been completed and returned to the DTI Statistics Division. The findings will contribute to a public consultation which we hope to publish in summer 2002. Programme Making & Special Events (PMSE) The pressure of demand for spectrum for programme-making is increasing, with both an overall increase in the number of occasions when spectrum is required and an increase in the average use of spectrum for each "event." The Agency is studying supply-and-demand pressures in each of the programme-making bands. Relevant factors include the loss of spectrum to 3G mobile, the impact of digital switchover on the use of UHF frequencies, the scope for greater spectral efficiency through the use of digital techniques and the role of spectrum pricing in helping to balance supply and demand. In 1996 the Agency contracted out management and licensing of the PMSE spectrum. The current contract, awarded in 1997 to JFMG, ended on 31 March 2002. During the year the Agency issued an Invitation to Tender for the next PMSE contract, and following the tender process the contract has been once again awarded to JFMG. The spectrum planning for the forthcoming Commonwealth Games, to be held in Manchester during July and August 2002, is currently under way. The Agency will be working closely with other government departments and the Games organisers to ensure that spectrum requirements are met wherever possible. Spectrum Management Advisory Group (SMAG) SMAG is a non-departmental public body whose role is to provide independent strategic advice on spectrum management to the relevant DTI Minister and the Agency. Chaired by Dr John Forrest, SMAG has continued to examine a wide range of key spectrum issues. The major topics discussed over the last year have been the response to the Independent Review of Spectrum Management, analogue to digital television transition, spectrum trading, preparations for the next World Radio Conference in 2003 and the UK Spectrum Strategy. SMAG hosted a consultation on the Independent Spectrum Review in October 2001 and undertook its own brainstorming session on the management of deregulated spectrum in January 2002. During 2001/2002 several new members were appointed to SMAG. Full details of SMAG's membership and its work can be found on its website at www.smag.radio.gov.uk |
The current members of SMAG |
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