Radiocommunications Agency Business Review 95/96

Keeping the Spectrum Clean

Enforcement and Local Services to Customers

The Agency's local office network was subject to a review by PA Consulting Group. PA found that the efficiency of the District field force is comparable to the best practice in the private sector. However, changes to the managerial and support structure were suggested and these have now been implemented. There are now eight administrative centres compared with the twenty offices previously. This concentration of effort within a smaller number of bases is aimed at further improving customer service. Processing of local standard private mobile radio applications will continue to be carried out by local technical staff and the numbers of technical officers in the field has not changed. The re-organisation will also facilitate further delegation of licensing work from the centre. The new offices are listed in Information Sheet RA 206 which is available from the Library.

Service to Customers

Our local staff endeavour to provide the Agency's customers with the highest possible standard of radiocommunications by resolving interference problems, by a continuing programme of inspections of radio installations, by educating customers in correct radio use and, where required, by enforcement action. All radio usage is covered in our activities, including mobile, aeronautical, maritime, broadcasting, fixed services, paging and leisure radio use. Business radio use remains the major element of planned programme work. Inspections of radio installations are a necessary ingredient because failure by one user to meet the terms of the licence may well cause interference to another.

Priorities

The Agency's priorities in dealing with interference have been set by Ministers. These are to deal first with interference affecting the emergency services; second to assist businesses affected by interference; and, finally, to deal with other interference complaints. The Agency aims to respond to all complaints from the emergency services within 24 hours, 98% of complaints from business radio users within five working days, and 98% of domestic interference complaints within one month. These targets were all met during the year.

Unlicensed Broadcasters

Unlicensed broadcasters continue to cause serious interference to authorised radio users, including safety of life services. The Agency is vigorous in pursuit of those responsible. 704 raids were carried out during the year and 57 persons were convicted for their involvement with unlicensed stations.

The Agency makes full use of the powers in the Wireless Telegraphy Act 1949 to act against those who facilitate the operation of unlicensed broadcasters. In one case a person found guilty of running an unlicensed broadcasting station was sentenced to three monthsÕ imprisonment. Another received 160 hours community service. The Agency has also pursued those who use unlicensed stations as an advertising medium and has arranged for telephone services used by stations in their operation to be disconnected. Furthermore, those who are convicted are disqualified under the Broadcasting Act from involvement in legitimate commercial radio for a five-year period.

Prosecutions

The Agency always tries to persuade radio users to operate within the law. However, those who fail to do so and who deliberately flout the law, thereby putting the communications of authorised users at risk, are prosecuted - with great success. Details of the prosecutions brought by the Agency during the year and the number of users formally warned for breaches of the legislation can be found in Table 7.

TABLE 7: PROSECUTION CASES CONCLUDED IN THE COURTS AND WARNING LETTERS ISSUED
1 April 1995 - 31 March 1996

1 1 sentenced to 3 months' imprisonment for offences relating to the management, financing, day to day running, providing premises and soliciting advertising for a UBR 7 sentenced to Community Service - ranging from 40 hours to 160 hours
2 Advertising on pirate radio

Help to Business Users of Radio

For business users of radio who are unable to resolve intractable problems, the Agency will investigate and advise on interference problems on a consultancy basis. During the financial year this service was used by 129 businesses. The charge is £45 plus VAT per man-hour, or £1,000 plus VAT per day for the Agency's NAMAS accredited specialist mobile laboratory. Interference to Domestic Reception
The Agency sets out in a leaflet entitled 'Advice on Television and Radio Reception' (RA 179) measures that can be taken by householders to ensure that they are receiving the best reception possible. This leaflet also aims to assist householders whose broadcast reception is affected by interference and explain what the Agency can do to resolve these problems.

Often interference problems lie outside the Agency's statutory responsibilities and should be dealt with by private sector service engineers, dealers and aerial contractors. These instances are usually when a radio or television has poor immunity to unwanted signals, or inadequate aerial arrangements, as opposed to interference from the illegal use of radio or faulty electrical apparatus.

If an interference problem cannot be solved by the private sector, then the Agency can check viewers' and listeners' reception arrangements. There is a flat rate charge for this service because it does not form part of the Agency's regulatory duties. The charge was increased to £40 with effect from 1 April 1996. If a suspected source of interference is identified, then it will be checked free of charge as part of the Agency's regulatory work. The cost of this work is met from the BBC television licence income. From 1 April 1996 the BBC has paid the Agency direct rather than via the Department of National Heritage as previously. The Agency is discussing with the BBC how information about broadcast reception difficulties can be made more accessible. Details of the number of reported cases of interference can be found in Table 8 (page 26).

Monitoring

The Agency's Radio Monitoring Station at Baldock in Hertfordshire provides a range of monitoring services. The activities of the three sections during 1995-96 are summarised in Table 9 (page 27).

The Terrestrial Monitoring Station is run from an operations room which is staffed 24 hours a day. Its primary responsibility is the protection of the HF spectrum from interference, although the facility is also available for specific measurement requests on a repayment basis.

During the year 3,232 requests for assistance were received, both from emergency services in the UK and from administrations throughout the world. In all cases affecting safety of life services, the response was within the target of one hour.

The operations room is also responsible for contacting the Agency's field staff out of normal hours and there were 557 such calls in the year. A further task is the issuing of temporary earth station clearance requests and these continue at an ever increasing rate. 6,684 clearances were processed, a 51% increase over last year.

The satellite monitoring site takes measurements and observations on the use of the geostationary arc by communications and broadcast satellites. Information on transponder occupancy and orbital arc occupancy is collected to enable interference and conflicts between shared users of this part of the spectrum to be resolved quickly and satisfactorily.

The facility is equipped with two fully-steerable large parabolic reflectors for use in the Ku and C frequency bands and a smaller 1.8m antenna for the L band. These facilities are available to satellite operators and service providers for specific measurements on a repayment basis.

The Mobile Monitoring teams based at Baldock systematically monitor usage of the PMR bands on a national basis. The Regional centres have requested that a number of additional locations are monitored to help with the local frequency assignment process. This on-going programme will provide a basis for future decisions on frequency assignments. The mobile teams have also been engaged on the measurement of VHF and UHF continental interference and coordinated trials to assess the impact of Acropol.
The major monitoring tasks for the year have been associated with the audit of all PMR bands. The result of the VHF High Band audit enabled the band to be re-opened for assignments in London.

Seven unattended monitoring systems have been dedicated to monitoring PMR activity within London, leaving the other seven to be deployed throughout the country as necessary. The unattended systems provide a flexible monitoring and measuring system covering 20 MHz to 1300 MHz.
Configuration changes and results can be obtained by remote control, making these valuable tools for use within the licensing process. The systems are about to be further enhanced to apportion channel occupancy to individual licensees and offer the option of audio recording and antenna switching.

The NAMAS accredited EMC and interference laboratories deal with complex measurement and interference work across the whole radio spectrum. Site protection surveys have resulted in new earth station assignments going ahead. The team is well placed to assist other government departments with RF related issues.

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