Significant Enhancement of SatClear System

24 October 2003

The Radiocommunications Agency (RA) today announced that Phase II of the successful SatClear online system was released on Wednesday 22 October.

Since the launch of Phase I of the system earlier this year, RA has undertaken extensive consultation with users. This has led to the development of a number of enhancements which make the system more versatile and even easier to use.

Enhancements of Licensees' Secure Portal

Licensees and their authorised users will notice a number of enhancements of the clearance and record-management facilities:

• improved audit trail, including the indication of site-cleared terminals and the facility for licensees or authorised users to produce a network terminal listing;
• more versatile postcode and address recognition software, enabling the resolution of postcodes into addresses for properties with multiple occupants;
• a link to the Ordnance Survey gazetteer, enabling the coarse filtering of location details;
• clarification of the relaxed Radio Site Clearance criteria, allowing the entry of relative height data and incorporating the extended site-clearance EIRP threshold of 50 dBW; and
• a simplified secure uploading facility for batch submissions.

These enhancements are fully described in the revised explanatory notes within the system.

Licensees will also notice that the details of installations cleared by RA staff before the launch of Phase I will become visible during the coming weeks. This will mark the end of the transitional period that followed the release of Phase I of the system.

Supranational Harmony

The Network Licence has also been revised to take account of recent legislative developments. Licensees will be issued with the General Licence Conditions and accompanying licence documents in the next few weeks. The SatClear terminal listing is incorporated into this documentation. After much development and testing, RA is also adopting new software to assist in the calculation of Network Licence charges, increasing transparency in the licence-charging process.

Announcing the launch of Phase II of SatClear, Rolande Anderson, RA Chief Executive, said:

"Wednesday's release of Phase II of SatClear marked the successful completion of the SatClear project. RA remains grateful for the continuing co-operation of our governmental partners and of Network Licensees."

SatClear can be found on the RA website at www.radio.gov.uk within the 'Online Services' section, where there is also further information about this system and the work of RA.

Notes for Editors

1. The Radiocommunications Agency (RA) is an Executive Agency of the Department of Trade and Industry, responsible for managing the efficient use of the civilian radio spectrum in the UK. By the end of this year (2003), RA and all responsibility for regulating the radio spectrum and communications services will become part of Ofcom - the new converged regulator for the communications sector. Ofcom will merge the functions of five existing regulatory bodies - RA, the Independent Television Commission (ITC), the Broadcasting Standards Commission, the Office of Telecommunications (Oftel) and the Radio Authority. See the Ofcom transitional website at www.ofcom.org.uk for details.

2. SatClear is an online system which enables holders of Network Licences to submit online applications for the clearance of small interactive satellite earth stations. This system also enables Network Licensees securely to view and maintain their network details online.

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RA/PN/2003/10