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Private Business Systems PMR (Standard) licence for UK General Speech Systems a Consultative Document |
What is a PMR (Standard)
UK General licence ?
A PMR (Standard) UK General system permits the use of specified simplex frequencies anywhere in the UK for periods of use up to 1 year provided that the Radiocommunications Agency ("the Agency") has been notified 14 days in advance of the intended use. A UK General system has either hand-portable or mobile radios. Base stations are not permitted.
How are PMR (Standard) UK General systems used ?
PMR (Standard) UK General systems are widely used by commercial organisations that operate throughout the UK. Such systems enable communication anywhere in the UK using the same frequencies and the same radio equipment. Typical users include the construction industry and event organisers.
What is this consultation about ?
The Agency intends to rationalise the existing licence to provide a more focused licensing regime with simpler access to spectrum.
Accordingly, the Agency is, in this document, seeking views on its intention to replace the existing PMR (Standard) UK General licence with a simplified licensing regime.
The existing PMR (Standard) UK General Licence
The Agency currently allocates from frequencies listed in the attached table, to users seeking a PMR (Standard) UK General licence.
The Agency is aware that a number of PMR (Standard) UK General licensees have been allocated non-UK General frequencies largely as a result of complications with assigning the correct UK General channels. There are also instances where UK General frequencies are being used at fixed locations for periods of greater than one year, rather than the transient use permitted by the PMR (Standard) UK General licence. In order to address these licensing anomalies, the Agency intends to replace the existing PMR (Standard) UK General licence with a new licence, known as the PBR UK General licence.
PMR (Standard) UK General licensees not using the frequencies listed in the attached table will be required to migrate within 5 years to either the new PBR UK General licence or a PBR On-Site licence.
The new "PBR UK General licence"
This new licence will enable licensees to use any or all of the frequencies listed in the attached table anywhere in the UK. These frequencies will be for simplex use only and base stations will not be permitted. This simplified licence removes the need for the Agency to undertake frequency assignment and consequently should provide even quicker licence application processing times. The fee for this will be proposed by the Agency later this year in its Spectrum Pricing Consultative Document. However, indications are that the proposed fees will be considerably less than those currently applying to PMR (Standard) UK General Systems, the latter being based on the number of mobiles used.
PBR On-Site licence
New spectrum is to be made available to those users who have a need for the same single frequency to be used at multiple locations. Such users will be able to apply for a PBR On-Site licence. The fee structure will be that which is currently used for all PBR On-Site licences.
Overview
This document has detailed the Agency’s proposals regarding the rationalisation of the existing PMR (Standard) UK General licence. Your comments on these proposals are important. The contact, address and deadline for responses is given below.
Comments on this document should be sent by 12th October 2001 to:
Jason Simons
Private Business Systems
Radiocommunications Agency
11G/11C Wyndham House
189 Marsh Wall
London
E14 9SX
e-mail: jason.simons@ra.gsi.gov.uk
If you have any queries concerning this consultative document, please contact Jason Simons on 020 7211 0199
Please note that both the consultation document itself and the responses to it will be published on the RA website. If you wish to make a response that you would prefer to have treated in confidence, please make this clear. Any confidential material should be clearly marked as such and accordingly submitted in a separate annex.
Unconditional permission for publication will be assumed unless the author openly states otherwise and any copyright attached to responses will be assumed to have been relinquished unless it is expressly reserved.
September 2001 |
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