Citizens’ Band (CB) radio – Authorising Amplitude Modulation (AM) modes of operation

This Statement sets out Ofcom’s decision to proceed with proposals made in our Consultation “Citizens’ Band (CB) radio – Authorising Amplitude Modulation (AM) modes of operation”1 (the ‘Consultation') which was published on 7 October 2013 and closed on 8 November 2013.

The Consultation proposed to amend current arrangements for Citizens’ Band (CB) Radio in the UK to allow the use of Amplitude Modulation (AM) Double-sideband (DSB) and Single-sideband (SSB) transmission on CB radio.

Ofcom specifically proposed to:

• Authorise the use of AM emissions on European Conference of Postal and Telecommunications Administrations (CEPT) harmonised channels in line with European Communication Committee (ECC) Decision (11)032; and
• Authorise such use on a licence exempt basis (in line with our authorisation approach for other modes of operation for CB).

These proposals followed on from work carried out in Europe. In June 2011 the ECC, part of CEPT, published a Decision, ECC/DEC/ (11)03 (the ‘Decision’) on the harmonised use of frequencies for CB radio equipment. The Decision sought to harmonise the technical standards and usage conditions relating to the use of frequencies for CB radio equipment in CEPT administrations. Our proposals were consistent with the Decision.

The response to the Consultation was overwhelmingly in favour of our proposals. There were 275 responses to the Consultation, 64 of which were confidential, 210 were non-confidential and 1 was confidential in part. Out of the responses 260 agreed with the authorisation of AM/DSB and AM/SSB use on CB.

The main concerns expressed by respondents related to the need for effective enforcement, the knowledge and behaviour of CB users and questions surrounding the proposed technical parameters. These issues are explored in more detail in Section 3.

Given the positive response to the consultation we will proceed to implement the proposals as set out in the Consultation. We will include these changes in the next update of the licence exemption regulations which we expect to come into force by July 2014.