Minutes of the third meeting of the 450-470 MHz band realignment Project industry working group held on May 24th 2000

Those present:

Steve Limb
Mike Purdom
Richard Greenleaf
Mike Thilo
Adrian Noad
Alan Hudson
David Priestley
David Tripp
Tim Cull
Ian Marwood
Glen Everett

Apologies:

Gerald David OBE
Mike Brookes
Derek Banner

Item 1

Minutes of last meeting

Tim Cull requested that the amended version of the minutes of the previous meeting be posted on the website. Action: Mike Purdom

Discussion of Band Plan

There was concern expressed by the group that the band plan did not leave room for parallel working. There was also concern expressed at the proposed notice period of six months, it was thought that a large business would need two or three years notice of their changeover in order to plan adequately for all eventualities.

The opinion of the members was that there would be a high percentage of users who would require parallel working particularly those operating at national network.

The logistics of a frequency changeover for a large business were so great that the group considered it very important for the treasury to provide some funding to ease the burden.

The chairman stated that the first principle of the band plan was to work towards a single switchover whenever possible and to try and avoid parallel running.

The questions that needed to be asked by the forthcoming survey were:

How critical is parallel running to your business?

What is the effect of an overnight switchover?

Members of the group suggested that it would be of benefit if some licensees could be moved before the 2005 deadline. The chairman suggested that no decisions on general pre-deadline movement of licensees could be made until a proper survey has been done.

Glenn Everett detailed the plans for a two-stage survey. Initially targeting a large percentage of licensees to discover the percentage who foresee major problems occurring when they have to realign. These licensees would then be surveyed in greater depth about the potential problems they envisage.

Publicity

The members of the group suggested that a more vigorous publicity campaign be carried out by the Band Realignment team, in particular targeting dealers and suppliers. It was also suggested that future publicity notices should avoid referring to the 2005 deadline as this would only encourage complacency among licensees and could also do possible harm to suppliers and manufacturers of radio equipment as users would be inclined to wait until immediately before they were due to be realigned to purchase new equipment.

It was also suggested by members of the group that the RA could offer reduced licence fees to those licensees who want to migrate before 2005.

The group discussed the possibility that an area of the south coast be used as a test case to investigate whether or not early moves are possible. Analysis of an assignment database was also considered by the members to be an important method of gathering information relevant to this decision.

AOB

It was requested that the publicity notices on the website be numbered. Action: Mike Purdom

Next Meeting

The next meeting will be held on the 1st August 2000.

Mike Purdom