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Informative Notice - The Wireless Telegraphy (Control of Interference from Material Substances Forming Part of Telecommunication Systems) Regulations 2001 |
| 1.1 | These Regulations establish limits for the radiation of electromagnetic emissions from parts of apparatus employed in certain telecommunication systems. Emissions above the limits would be such as to render any interference caused to radio (otherwise known as wireless telegraphy) use be considered as undue within the meaning of section 19 of the Wireless Telegraphy Act 1949 ("the 1949 Act"). The Regulations are made under section 10(1)(a) of the 1949 Act. |
| 1.2 | The Regulations will apply to emissions from material substances of a metallic nature, in this case cabling or wiring, forming part of specified types of telecommunication system, often called broadband systems, that are intended to carry Internet or other data at relatively high speed. The systems covered are known as Digital Subscriber Line (DSL), Power Line Technology (PLT) and Home Local Area Networks (Home LANs) (together "the relevant systems"). These are generic names for types of technology rather than proprietary product brands. The common characteristic features of all the relevant systems is that the data is carried by means of electromagnetic energy at what are known as radio frequencies along conductors, and that the conductors have generally not originally been installed or intended to carry such signals. |
| 1.3 | The limits above which interference is considered to be undue under the Regulations are set out in Department of Trade and Industry, Radiocommunications Agency standard MPT 1570 dated August 2001 (copy attached). |
| 1.4 | The Regulations only apply to the use in service of the relevant systems and they are only employed in the circumstances set out in section 11 of the 1949 Act. That is, generally when undue interference is actually caused to wireless telegraphy, but also, where undue interference is likely to be caused to a safety of life service. In the general case, there is a proviso in the 1949 Act that the Secretary of State may only take action against the user of the apparatus where he considers that all reasonable steps have been taken by the person suffering the interference to minimise it. The Regulations provide that they only apply to radiation from the material substances forming part of the relevant systems that are first put into service on or after the date that the Regulations come into force. The regulations do not therefore have retrospective effect. |
| 1.5 | The Regulations do not affect the need for compliance by apparatus comprised in the relevant systems with the Electromagnetic Compatibility Directive, 89/336/EEC ("the EMC Directive") as implemented in the UK by SI 1992/2372 ("the EMC Regulations") or with the Radio Equipment and Telecommunications Terminal Equipment Directive, 1999/5/EC ("the RTTE Directive"), as implemented in the UK by SI 2000/730 ("the RTTE Regulations"), as appropriate. The EMC and RTTE Directives apply to new apparatus and systems within their scope at the time of placing on the market or putting into service. The present Regulations apply to interference emanating from the cabling or wiring carrying the signals within relevant systems when they are in use. Modems and other apparatus connected to the lines would have been subject to the EMC or RTTE Regulations provisions in respect of their being placed on the market or bringing into service and are therefore not affected in themselves by the interference limits. Cabling and wiring comprised in the relevant systems will either pre-date or for other reasons fall outside the EMC and RTTE Directives and their implementing UK Regulations. |
| 1.6 | Where a case of undue interference arises under the present Regulations, it would be for the person responsible for the relevant system to take such remedial measures as are necessary so that emissions from the cabling or wiring meet the limits. |
| 2.1 | The need for faster access to the Internet and other data services has generated a requirement for new methods of delivery to the end-user and of distribution around the end user’s premises. One approach is to utilise existing infrastructure, such as electricity cables or telephone wires, to carry the data. Although telephone wires, in particular, have been used to provide Internet access for some time the signals have been restricted to the voice band frequency range so that they can use the public switched telephone network (PSTN). This type of access is generally referred to as dial-up narrow band as the maximum data rate is limited to a few tens of kilobits per second. |
| 2.2 | However to achieve higher data rates, greater bandwidth is needed and this requires higher frequencies of transmission. PLT, DSL and Home LAN systems all employ radio frequencies, with various modulation schemes, to transmit the data along the cables or wires. While this is an efficient means of carrying data it has risks. Most well designed radio frequency (RF) systems use cables that are suitably balanced or shielded so as to contain the signal within the cable as far as is possible and therefore control the level of unwanted RF radiation. The kind of infrastructure used by PLT, DSL and Home LAN systems is not intended primarily for carrying RF signals and it is not generally shielded or balanced for radio frequency purposes, or it otherwise may become unbalanced under particular conditions. The resulting unwanted RF radiation may therefore be sufficiently high as to cause undue interference to radio users. |
| 2.3 | The Government has therefore responded to requests from radio users by consulting on a standard that could be implemented under section 10 of the 1949 Act where interference caused by emissions above a certain level would be considered undue. Discussions and a formal consultation have been held, open to all interested parties, including the telecommunications operators and manufacturers and radio spectrum users. The formal consultation was carried out in the Summer of 2000. |
| 2.4 | Setting the limit was a difficult balance to strike as the new technologies for carrying data are important for the reasons described in paragraph 2.1 above, yet undue interference must be controlled. The Minister for e-Commerce announced on November 9th 2000 the limits that the Government had decided upon. Those limits are the ones now contained in Parts 5 and 6 of MPT1570 dated 3rd August 2001. They apply to emissions at frequencies from 9 KHz to 1.6 MHz. These frequencies are used mainly for long and medium wave broadcasting, for defence, civil aviation, standard time and frequency services, and by radio amateurs. |
| 2.5 | The present draft Statutory
Instrument is entitled "The Wireless Telegraphy (Control of Interference
from Material Substances forming part of Telecommunication Systems ) Regulations."
The phrase "Material Substances forming part of Telecommunication Systems"
has its origins in the 1949 Act . Section 19(1) thereof defines wireless
telegraphy as: "……the emitting or receiving, over paths which are not provided by any material substance constructed or arranged for that purpose, of electromagnetic energy of a frequency not exceeding three million megacycles a second……". The definition further describes the energy as serving for the conveying of messages or images, or for the control of machinery or the determination of position or bearings of objects. In searching for a generic description of the types of technology that might fall within the process described in paragraph 2.2 above, it was found that such process satisfied all the conditions for wireless telegraphy except that it did make use of a material substance of some kind arranged as a transmission medium. Hence, the use of the phrase in the title of these Regulations. The definition of "material substance" is limited in the Statutory Instrument so that it does not apply to interconnecting wiring or printed circuit board tracks within equipment connected to the DSL, PLT or Home LAN cabling or wiring. |
| 2.6 | It has been suggested that there is a conflict between these Regulations and the EMC and RTTE Regulations. Terminals would be subject to compliance with the EMC or RTTE Regulations at the time of placing on the market or taking into service. However, cabling and wiring are specifically excluded from the scope of the RTTE Directive. For EMC Regulations purposes cabling and wiring are benign in themselves and are therefore considered outside the scope of the EMC Directive. In any case, for many of the systems concerned, the cabling and wiring will most likely pre-date the Directives. The UK Regulations implementing the EMC Directive expressly permit the continuing application of Section 10 regulations to apparatus when used in service and the making of new ones where these are necessary for the purposes of radio frequency spectrum management. |
| 2.7 | The limits, and the procedure allowed for under the 1949 Act to enforce them, can only be invoked in the circumstances permitted under the Act. The limits are therefore not a product compliance standard. Section 10(4) of the 1949 Act provides that use of apparatus which does not comply with the Regulations is not unlawful. However, non-compliance can be grounds for serving a Notice under section 11 of the Act. Section 11(1) of the 1949 Act provides for a Notice to be served on the "person in whose possession the apparatus is" under certain interference circumstances and when the requirements of section 10 Regulations are not complied with. That Notice can provide for close down of the apparatus in 28 days hence (or immediately in the case of safety of life being threatened). As a matter of policy, limits are only applied in the investigation of actual interference cases that are reported. In effect the 28 day close down period, or the immediate close down in safety of life cases, can allow for remedial measures to be taken. The person upon whom the Notice can be served will be different according to the type of relevant system at fault. Faults may be found to be due to the cabling or wiring itself, or they may be due to faulty apparatus connected to the line. It would be for the person responsible to correct the fault, wherever it was, so that radiation from the line was reduced to levels below the limits in the Regulations. |
| 2.8 | Where a 28 day Notice is served, the person on whom it is served has the right to appeal to a Tribunal established under the 1949 Act. In such case the effect of the Notice is stayed until the Tribunal has determined the matter. However, contravention of a Notice in force is a criminal offence. |
| August 2001 |  |