1. Introduction

The Radiocommunications Agency (RA) investigates external sources of interference to business radio systems free of charge, as this is a regulatory matter. However, if we find that your equipment is the cause of the problem (because it is faulty, does not have immunity or is poorly installed), you will be liable for the cost of the investigation. You are therefore advised to consult your equipment supplier before contacting us.

If your equipment supplier thinks that the problem is within your installation but cannot resolve it, we may be able to resolve or diagnose the problem at a commercial rate (see Section 5).

2. How to report interference

The information we need to investigate a complaint of interference is:

• when and how the interference manifests itself;
• the type of system affected;
• the licence number of the affected system (if applicable);
• the location of the affected system, and how we can gain access to it; and
• the frequencies affected.

Once you have gathered this information, you can report the interference to your local RA office by telephone, fax, email or post. Annex A contains a specimen report form.

RA has a network of local offices in eight nations and regions throughout the UK. Providing local customer services, they are the principal point of contact for many of our customers. Our local staff:

• investigate interference problems;
• process standard local business licence applications;
• inspect installations at customers' premises;
• help and advise with radio problems, and offer a paid diagnostic service to commercial and domestic radio users; and
• take action against unlicensed radio users.

Annex B lists the main local office in each nation and region, with its address, its telephone and fax numbers and the postcodes it covers.

3. Our priorities

Our local offices have limited resources so they need clear priorities. These priorities are set by government ministers:

• their first priority is to deal with interference which could endanger the safety of life;
• their second priority is to deal with interference that could disrupt the running of businesses and services; and
• they then deal with other radio users' problems.

4. Investigating interference complaints

During the course of an investigation, our local staff may need to inspect your installation. If they discover that the source of the problem is within your own system rather than external, their investigation will no longer be a regulatory matter so you will be liable for the cost. Our local staff will tell you how long they have spent on the investigation, and the local office will tell you our current hourly charge for this work.

It will then be for you to decide whether to consult your equipment supplier or service engineer again, or ask the local staff who are on your site – if they have the time – to inspect your installation further in an attempt to locate the problem. If they cannot determine or solve the problem during the inspection, they may be able to undertake further work at a later date (after agreement with the local Area Manager) as part of the Agency's limited commercial consultancy work (see below). A formal report will be issued at the conclusion of the investigation.

5. Commercial consultancy work

If you are a commercial user of radio and are having problems with your installation that your equipment supplier or service engineer cannot resolve, you can ask your local RA office if it can take on your case on a commercial basis. Our local staff have a wealth of experience in dealing with difficult
interference and reception problems.

We cannot, however, give priority to business radio users' problems with their own radio installations, as we must give priority to our regulatory work. Your local office will be able to take on commercial work only if it has the capacity to do so. Requests for this assistance should be made to the local Area Manager.

The cost of this work is based on an hourly charge. Investigating complaints can be time-consuming, and there is no guarantee that an investigation will successfully resolve the problem. To prevent customers incurring large costs, we will initially agree a ceiling on the number of hours taken for the investigation. Once this ceiling has been reached, we will review the case with you. If the review concludes that further investigation is likely to resolve the problem, and you are prepared to continue funding it, the investigation will continue for a further mutually agreed number of hours. If the case is still unresolved at that point, it will be reviewed again.

If staff at your local office tell you that they are able to accept your case on a commercial basis, within one week they will agree a start date with you. They will send you a contract for signature and return, confirming the terms under which they will do the work. When the investigation is over and we have been reimbursed for the cost, the local office will issue a report summarising the work undertaken and conclusions reached.

6. Further information

Our information sheet RA 206 contains further details of our local offices' activities. It is available free of charge on our website or from:

Library and Information Service
Radiocommunications Agency
Wyndham House
189 Marsh Wall
London E14 9SX

Tel: 020 7211 0502/0505
Fax: 020 7211 0507
Email: library@ra.gsi.gov.uk

Annex B

Main RA local offices

So that we can give you the best possible service, please contact your local office only for matters specific to your nation/region. For general matters, please call our Enquiry Point on 020 7211 0502/0505 or email library@ra.gsi.gov.uk

RA416 January 2003