Business Review 1996/1997 - Managing the Spectrum

In June 1996 the Agency announced the release of twenty-five additional channels for Common Base Station (CBS) services. In the most congested area, these were used mostly to resolve existing interference cases and in part to reduce the waiting list for assignments. This has eased (though not entirely solved) the worst of the congestion problems. The Agency has initiated an intensive monitoring exercise which is scheduled to be completed in June 1997. This work is essential to underpin the new loading criteria for the arrangement of new or additional channels.

The Agency has begun another trial of the use of Band One frequencies for CBS. Equipment which performs to CBS type-approval standards (although not formally type-approved for use in this frequency range) may be authorised by the Agency for use on a trial basis until the end of 1998 by which time, assuming the Band proves viable for the service, operational licences may be granted for formally type-approved equipment. A working group is examining whether there is merit in devolving some CBS assignment and licensing functions to the Agency's local licensing centres.

The Agency licenses four national data networks which continue to expand their range of services, providing the infrastructure and capacity for the delivery of dedicated data services to a variety of businesses. Work has begun to address the CEPT band reversal alignment project.

During this year, several regionally licensed services merged under a joint venture in the name of Fleetcomm Ltd and, whilst still formally a regional operator, the coverage provided is now comparable with National Band Three (NB3) Ltd's national coverage. Following an earlier consultation, two licences were awarded to Tetralink Ltd and NB3 for the provision of Trans European Trunked Radio (TETRA) digital PAMR services. The Agency has been actively involved in the ETSI committees developing TETRA standards. Other significant developments have included:

1	Cellnet/Vodafone Access to 1800 MHz The Agency has been working closely with Cellnet, Vodafone and the Home and Scottish Offices in order to implement the relocation of HO/SO fixed links from the PCN band at 1790-1798 MHz to clear the lower end of the PCN spectrum for Cellnet and Vodafone. Link re-tuning was scheduled to start in London and the South East in August; Cellnet and Vodafone are aiming to launch a service in the DCS 1800 band in spring 1998.
2	Additional Allocation of 1800 MHz Spectrum to the PCN Operators The Agency has agreed the allocation of a further 2x5 MHz of spectrum at 1800 MHz to Orange and One 2 One. This brings each operator's allocation to 2x30 MHz, which is the full allocation reserved for them as a result of last year's consultative document on mobile phone spectrum. Spectrum will be used to enable future expansion, including the provision of 'innovative service' such as home base stations, based on the DCS 1800 standard. Standardisation work is proceeding within ETS1 SMG.
3	ETACS/MOD Co-ordination Negotiations have taken place with the MoD, in order to ease co-ordination between MoD and ETACS in the 900 MHz band. The former ETACS exclusion zones have been reduced, and Cellnet and Vodafone are now trading from additional sites within the excluded area.

The Agency has been developing a new Statutory Instrument, the Network User Exemption Regulations, which is now near completion. This instrument is deregulatory in nature and will exempt the end-user equipment for Cellular, Data and Public Access Mobile Radio (PAMR) services from licensing under the Wireless Telegraphy Act 1949. The effect of this exemption is simply to formalise a de facto licence exemption which has operated in practice for a number of years for these systems.