Radiocommunications Agency Publishes Frequency Allocation Plan

20 December 2002

The Radiocommunications Agency has today published the UK Frequency Allocation Table (UKFAT) on its website at www.radio.gov.uk/topics/spectrum-strat/uk-fat/uk-fat2002.htm

The UK Frequency Allocation Table, until recently a classified document, now covers the whole radio spectrum from 9 kHz to 275 GHz. It also identifies the responsibility for management of those frequency bands or services where management has been agreed, showing whether they are managed by the Radiocommunications Agency, the Ministry of Defence, or another Government department. Its publication responds to a recommendation of the independent Review of Radio Spectrum Management. The publication of the UKFAT will contribute to greater transparency about the use of the radio spectrum and help to identify further opportunities for sharing between civil and military users.

A printed version of the UKFAT will be available from the Radiocommunications Agency shortly. Those wishing to receive a copy should contact the RA library on tel: 0207 211 0502/05, or email: library@ra.gsi.gov.uk.

Background

The publication of the UKFAT responds to Recommendation 10.1 of the independent Review of Radio Spectrum Management, which reads: “the RA should publish the UK Peacetime Frequency Allocation Table, identifying which bands are under MoD management”.

In its response, published on 15 October, the Government accepted the recommendation and undertook that the UK Peacetime Frequency Allocation Table, now renamed the UK Frequency Allocation Table (UKFAT) would be published by the end of the year.

This is first time in which responsibility for the management of all frequency bands has been identified in this way. The UKFAT should be read alongside the Table of Frequency Use in the Strategy for the Future Use of the Radio Spectrum in the UK 2002, which provides more detailed information about current services and proposed future use of the spectrum.

Notes to editors

1. The Radiocommunications Agency is an executive agency of the DTI responsible for the management of the civil (non-military) radio spectrum in the UK.

2. The Review of Radio Spectrum Management was published in March 2002 and is available at www.spectrumreview.radio.gov.uk, together with the Government response to the Review, published in October 2002.

3. The Radiocommunications Agency is one of the five regulatory bodies that will merge to form Ofcom, probably towards the end of 2003.

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RA/PN/2002/11