Equipment Requirements

Satellite Earth Station Equipment - Regulatory Regime

General Issues:

Generally, the three principal issues governing UK regulation and approval of radiotransmission apparatus are:

• i) Electro Magnetic Compatibility (usually below 1 GHz) to ensure that equipment has adequate immunity performance and control spurious emissions - EMC requirements are often referred to as essential "horizontal" requirements ;

• ii) Compliance with "essential requirements" and provisions of 99/5/EC in respect of Safety and Efficient use of the radio spectrum;

and

• iii) Licence(s) to regulate the connection and operation of approved transmission equipment in a given band at a given frequency and bandwidth, power and location, etc.;

Equipment Manufacturers are responsible for ensuring that equipment complies with the essential requirements, and for undertaking adequate assessment testing prior to operation, and is correctly marked.

Operators of satellite earth station equipment are responsible for the correct operation and ensuring that it is suitably licensed for radiotransmission and (where appropriate) connection to the telecommunications network.

Equipment which is intended for either direct or indirect direct connection to the public telecommunications network (wire, radio, optical etc.) will normally require a Telecommunications Act 1984 licence.