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A Strategy for the Future Use of the Radio
Spectrum in the UK
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A Strategy for the Future Use of the Radio
Spectrum in the UK
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The Radiocommunications Agency (RA) had just become established in its new headquarters at South Quay Three in Docklands when the building was damaged by a bomb blast on 9 February, 1996. The move, into this modern and well equipped building, was part of the Agency’s commitment to provide customers with the level of service that users, business and industry demand. The enhanced facilities were designed to enable the Agency to respond, in a timely way, to the ever increasing demands placed on the radio spectrum and hence achieve its vision of being a catalyst for growth in the UK economy, through innovative and widespread use of the radio spectrum into the next century.
Even though the normal issuing of licences was up and running within two or three weeks of the incident, there has inevitably been some disruption to the services that the RA provides to its customers, but everything possible has been done to minimise the impact on customers. This disruption has also resulted in the late publication of the second issue of the UK Spectrum Strategy. The RA is now temporarily located at New King’s Beam House from where the full requirements of customers will be met. The Agency is due to return to South Quay Three in about two years time.
Economic Impact of Radio
As a result of last year’s Consultative document “The Future Use of the Radio Spectrum” the RA commissioned a study on the economic impact of the use of radio. This is believed to be the first of its kind in Europe. The results estimated that the radio spectrum contributes around £10 billion to the UK Gross Domestic Product (GPD), £7-11 billion in efficiency and other benefits and provides over 300,000 jobs in the UK. The findings of this report shows just how successful and dynamic the UK radio industry is and the extent of its contribution to the economy. The report also stimulated great interest within the Conference of European Postal and Telecommunications (CEPT) Administrations and several countries are now considering carrying out similar studies.
Sharing Military Spectrum
The RA manages most of the radio spectrum used for civil purposes within the UK and the Ministry of Defence (MoD) manages all military applications. The MoD have fully supported civil sharing of military bands wherever possible and without such support there would be a shortfall in appropriate spectrum for many civil applications within the UK. However, they are constrained to a certain extent by international agreements with NATO. The NATO Joint Frequency Agreement (NJFA) between military and civil authorities of the NATO nations lists all peacetime use of the radio spectrum for military purposes. See Appendix C for the availability of this Document. The Agreement forms the basis of harmonised spectrum utilisation for military operations throughout Europe.
Sustaining Growth
The radio spectrum is a scarce resource that requires effective management and efficient use if it is to sustain the current growth rate of new radio systems and technical innovation into the next century. Growth in telecommunications using the radio spectrum continues unabated, placing ever greater demands on this scarce resource. To meet this demand the RA continues to search for timely ways to facilitate access to spectrum, of quality appropriate to the intended use, for the widest range of services, thereby promoting the creation of wealth, competition and choice.
In pursuit of its objective to be a catalyst for growth in the UK economy, the RA regards it as vital to publish and update annually a strategic plan for the optimum exploitation of the radio spectrum to enable market participants to maintain and improve their competitiveness and to provide a sound basis for long-term planning. This second annual edition of the document lays the foundations for that strategy and continues our commitment to publish and consult on a strategy for the whole of the spectrum resource.
Open management of the radio spectrum is one of the key objectives of the RA and this second edition of the strategic plan is intended to draw an outline of developments in radiocommunications, identified by the RA, for the next ten to fifteen years and formulates strategies to allow continued harmonised use of the spectrum.
The Strategy
The strategy is presented in three parts:
i. The Strategic Plan, this outlines key policy objectives taking account of developments in radiocommunications and how the RA aims to achieve them. These are closely linked to the Agency’s mission and vision;
ii. The RA's view of developments over the next 15 years from the perspective of 1996;
iii. Strategies for specific services; grouped by service or business category in Appendix A, and listed in frequency order in Appendix B.
In the case of part (iii) it is not practicable at this stage to include every use of radio, so we have focused on the following services:
Broadcasting
Those uses and issues which have not been addressed at this stage will be covered in later editions of the strategy.
The strategy outlined within is that of the Agency but it is consistent with Government policy and also takes account of important activities in other relevant areas. Those areas include the outcome from the ITU WRC-95 Conference, UK Radio Spectrum Reviews, the Detailed Spectrum Investigations being conducted by the CEPT’s European Radiocommunications Office (ERO), European Radio Committee (ERC) Decisions and Recommendations, European Commission Green Papers on Mobile Radio and Satellite Communications and the Government White Paper on Competition and Choice.
Retention of Format
Publication of the RA Spectrum Strategy is just one of the mechanisms by which the Agency is seeking to encourage efficient use of this scarce resource and the response to the first version of the document was very encouraging; the ideas expressed have, where possible, been incorporated in this second edition. The format was welcomed and, therefore, it remains largely unaltered in this issue. New ideas have been included in the tables of strategies in appendices A and B (in service order and frequency order respectively). These now incorporate a contact point within the Agency to enable direct access to key personnel.
The RA has in the past year rationalised licence categories into 12 main headings. Whilst this change is reflected in this edition, supplementary information in the form of the previous and well known service definitions has been added for ease of understanding.
Changes made at the 1995 International Telecommunication Union (ITU) World Radio Conference (WRC-95) have been incorporated where appropriate. Where a particular band is not mentioned within the tables it simply means that no particular issue has been identified and hence no changes are likely within a medium time scale. A detailed account of the current use of all bands within 9 kHz to 105 GHz are given in the list of UK Tables of Frequency Allocations. See Appendix C for the list of these tables and their availability. These tables also include current CEPT Recommendations and Decisions on the use of particular segments of the radio spectrum. Finally, a section on research projects has been added to give a representative sample of the key areas of current work, see Appendix C for details.
The RA welcomes discussions on the document with all interested parties. Your views and contributions are encouraged as the Agency is keen to develop a robust strategy for the management and use of the spectrum which will benefit all those who rely on radio for the success and competitiveness of their businesses and which will have the confidence of users and industry.
Please send your comments by 30 September 1996 to:
Don Pennell
Spectrum Strategy
Radiocommunications Agency
New King’s Beam House
22 Upper Ground
London SE1 9SA
Telephone: 020 7211 0073
Facsimile: 020 7211 0059
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