Minutes of the eighth meeting of the 450-470 MHz band realignment project Industry Working Group held on Tuesday 15 May 2001 at No 1 Victoria Street.

Those present:

Stephen Limb RA
Alan Hudson FCS Consultant
Derek Banner Wireless Messaging Association
Anton Matthews FCS
Glenn Everett DTI
Keith Jones Transco
Derek Baker Multitone
Richard Greenleaf JFMG
David Priestley JRC
Jon Bentall Transcomm UK
Dave Clark Home Office
Simon McCutcheon Home Office

Apologies:

Dr Adrian Noad Transcomm UK
Mike Thilo Radio Systems Ltd
David Tripp CSS
Gerald David Aerial Group
Tim Cull Motorola

Minutes

The minutes of the 6th and 7th meetings were approved and will be published on the website in due course.

Actions from 6th meeting:

- RAM (now Transcomm UK Ltd) and Siemens Datatrak have supplied information direct to RA.

Action discharged

- WMA will provide information on on site and wide area paging Action ongoing

Actions from 7th meeting:

- Keith Jones reported that he hadn't received a copy of the automatically generated letter to customers. [Note: this has now been resent] Action discharged

- The survey has been included in the annual survey compliance submission

Action discharged

- The case for Microsoft Project 2000 has been approved Action discharged

- Dave Clark and Simon McCutcheon from the Home Office were present at the meeting

Action discharged

- The paper explaining the the transition stages with constraints is still being developed

Action ongoing

- Production of more accurate spectrum usage tables for this band is still in progress

Action ongoing

Matters arising

Some concern was expressed about the letter to customers and the unsettling effects this might have on customers who could be outside the scope of the project. It was agreed not to inform those who would be unaffected by the project. A difficulty was that, in the absence of an agreed bandplan, it was only possible to tell customers that they would be moving, but not to where in the band. This would not be sufficient to allow customers to plan for the changes. It was agreed therefore that agreement of the bandplan was an urgent issue.

The current position of SMAG involvement is that they remain very aware of the project and are being kept abreast of developments. Their offer of assistance remains open - this will be kept in mind and used at an appropriate time. A seminar later this year is still an option.

Survey progress

Outline costs for the survey were included (along with costs for many other DTI surveys) in the annual ministerial submission on compliance costs. A response is awaited. It is not thought that the run up to the election will delay a response to this submission.

Comments on the draft band plan:

The rest of the meeting was taken up with a detailed discussion of the issues surrounding the draft bandplan which had been circulated prior to the previous meeting.

Dave Clark and Simon McCutcheon from the Home Office Spectrum Management Section explained Home Office use of the band, particularly the issues surrounding release of the 2x3MHz blocks containing divisional assignments which would migrate in time to Airwave. There was some doubt as to the validity of Stephen Limb's working assumption that the entire 2x3MHz would become free once Airwave migration was complete (the release date is currently scheduled for end 2004). If there is insufficient free spectrum to allow the first move of wide area paging to occur at that time, then the plan would need reworking.

Action: Stephen Limb and Dave Clark to ascertain the extent of residual HO services in the 2x3MHz blocks post 2004.

The position of N Ireland, Isle of Man and Channel Islands with respect to emergency service usage of this band was raised. N Ireland have just completed tendering for a system in 380-400MHz; the Isle of Man are further along than this in their project with a ready for service date in 2002. There is a system in operation in Jersey and requirements are expected from Guernsey in the near term.

The need was identified for a database containing all usage in the band. This would aid planning for implementation based on equipment lifecycles.

Stephen Limb asked whether, assuming that the 2x3MHz blocks would become free upon Airwave migration completion, the group could agree the draft bandplan. Subject to the assumption being valid, the group agreed (the public mobile data operators' position was reserved by Transcomm UK Ltd) that the bandplan was sensible.

JFMG requsted knowledge of services immediately below 450MHz.

Action: Stephen Limb to ascertain the nature of services just below 450MHz.

It was agreed that any comments on the bandplan should be furnished by the next meeting.

Action: Members to provide comments on the bandplan.

Date of next meeting:

Thursday 14 June 2001, 10.30am