Radiocommunications Agency Business Review 95/96

Managing the Spectrum

The Agency's responsibility for the management of the radio spectrum covers a diverse range of spectrum useage. This section of the Review details the developments and changes which have occurred in the preceding year, and future proposals in respect of specific categories of radio applications.

Private Business Radio

The term Private Business Radio (PBR) was adopted with industry support to cover all self-provided business radio including paging. The change is part of a programme to clarify and simplify licence products and will be taken into account in future renaming of licence categories.
During the year an audit of radio use in London in VHF high band, one of the major PBR bands, was published in response to requests from industry and as the first of a series of audits of all major PBR bands. The band had been closed to new users for several years, but the audit enabled a reopening programme to be established. By the end of the year more than 100 new services had been accommodated in the band.
Short Range Business Radio (SRBR) was launched in January 1996 with radio channels for both a speech and a paging service in England, Scotland and Wales. SRBR provides communication over a few hundred metres on randomly shared channels. There is a low-fee three-year licence and the nature of the service is such that there is no Agency involvement in channel sharing or interference disputes between licensees. The SRBR licence extends customer choice by adding an entry level product to the PBR range and is particularly suitable for firms not familiar with two-way radio and whose requirement is for very localised, site-based communication. Views of all PMR Short Term Hire licensees were sought to inform a debate about the link with the quality standard RQAS (Radio Quality Assurance Scheme), which is based on ISO 9000, prior to an explanatory mailing to licensees in February 1996.

During the year a facility for on-frequency repeaters was introduced, conditions for reverse frequency working and talkthrough were updated, and an improved facility for alarms on PBR was made available. In response to increasing numbers of enquiries an information sheet on Radio Local Area Networks (RLANS) was published.

Studies were carried out by the Agency's Radio Technology & Compatibility Group on the effects of digital radio signals on PBR services in Band 3. This includes the effects on narrowband 5 kHz (narrowband technologies) both on voice and high speed data. The effects on conventional 12.5 kHz PBR have also been measured, especially the important effects of PBR front-end intermodulation and blocking due to the presence of strong multiple digital radio signals. Protection ratios have also been produced for PBR services with interference from digital radio signals. These results have been used in the planning of digital radio and PBR Band 3 services. Field surveys of digital radio signal strengths have been completed and exclusion zones around digital radio transmitters have been plotted on OS maps.

TABLE 1: BREAKDOWN OF PMR STANDARD LICENSES on issue for the year ended 31 March

Tests with narrowband 5 kHz PBR technology have shown that subjectively the voice performance is comparable with conventional FM systems but with less than half the RF bandwidth. The correct operational use of this system has been determined so that the system can use the same planning criteria as for FM PBR.

Public Networks

Common Base Stations
The joint Agency/Industry Working Group set up in 1995 made substantial progress, defining improved engineering and loading criteria for Common Base Station (CBS) services which should improve both the quality and availability of CBS channels. As a result of this work the Agency was able to announce (in June 1996) the release of a further twenty five channels available for the CBS services.

Public Mobile Data

The four public mobile data networks continued to expand and develop their range of services, providing dedicated data services to a variety of businesses.

Public Access Mobile Radio

Following negotiations with the Ministry of Defence the Agency identified two 1 MHz blocks of spectrum in the 410-430 MHz band for the introduction of digital Public Access Mobile Radio services using the TETRA (Trans-European Trunked Radio) standard. TETRA will provide business users with advanced voice and data facilities thus extending the benefits of PAMR services. A consultation held in February 1996 in conjunction with DTI Communications and Information Industries Division proposed that two national licences should be issued and sought views on this proposal and invited expressions of interest. This led to the subsequent issuing of two national licences to NB3 Limited and Tetralink Limited for the provision of digital PAMR services.

Public Mobile Telephony

The Agency and DTI Communications and Information Industries Division carried out a major consultation exercise on the future of mobile telephony in the United Kingdom. Among the proposals were the allocation of additional spectrum in the 1800 MHz band to all four cellular and PCN operators for the provision of innovative services using the DCS 1800 standard. To reflect the continuing migration to digital technology, it was also proposed that the analogue cellular networks would close by the year 2005. Following consideration of the many responses received, the proposals were confirmed in a Ministerial announcement made in July 1996.

Public Paging Services

Trials to evaluate the compatibility of new paging services using the European ERMES standard with existing Private Business Radio services on adjacent frequencies were completed on schedule in January 1996. The trials indicated that only limited coordination between the two services would be required. Applications from existing and aspiring paging operators were invited in a competition announced in March 1996 and national ERMES licences were subsequently offered to six companies. As a European standard using harmonised spectrum, ERMES will provide pager users with similar international roaming capabilities to those already enjoyed by GSM/PCN subscribers.

Cordless Telephony

Regulations were made to consolidate the existing regulations for the licence exemption of analogue and digital cordless telephony. The regulations also extended licence exemption to DECT (Digital European Cordless Telecommunications) apparatus whose frequency allocation and equipment standards are harmonised throughout Europe. DECT promises to offer a wider range of voice and data services.

Universal Mobile Telecommunications System

CII and the Agency instigated the creation of the UK Third Generation Mobile Group (UK3GMG), a forum for operators and manufacturers to build consensus towards a UK vision for third generation systems. These systems which are envisaged to provide services which will arise from the convergence of telecommunications and IT, are being defined at both worldwide (via ITU-R TG 8/1) and European (via ETSI) level.

Mobile Satellite Services

The World Radio Conference 1995 (WRC-95) discussions have been a milestone for the Agency's work on mobile-satellite services. The Agency successfully negotiated frequency bands at 2 GHz to enable ICO Service Ltd, a UK-based company, to offer satellite personal communications from year 2000 onwards. The other provisions established at WRC-95 will also facilitate the provision of satellite personal communications by other consortia, such as Iridium and Globalstar - companies in which UK industry has made substantial investments. The UK is taking the lead within CEPT in establishing the regulatory framework for the operation of these satellite services, for example establishing agreements for free circulation of user terminals. It is expected that the provision of these services will greatly assist the true global roaming for the users of mobile communications.

Contents