Licence Exempt Short Range Devices in the 870 to 876 MHz and 915 to 921 MHz Bands: Technical Proposals

  • Start: 18 December 2013
  • Status: Closed
  • End: 19 February 2014

1.1 In December 2013 Ofcom published a consultation setting out our technical proposals to authorise the use of a range of Short Range Devices (SRD) in the frequency bands 870-876 MHz and 915-921 MHz. In this Statement, we summarise the responses to our consultation and set out our decision to authorise the use of SRD in these frequency bands.

1.2 Respondents to the consultation expressed a range of views, but on balance they gave broad support to our key proposals.

1.3 Having considered the responses, we have concluded that we will authorise the use of SRD by licence exemption in line with the technical conditions specified in our consultation. Consequently we will exempt compliant SRD from the need to have a Wireless Telegraphy Act 2006 ('WT Act') licence.

1.4 We intend to publish a notice of proposals to make regulations to implement our decision to exempt compliant SRD from the need to have a WT Act licence in April 2014.

1.5 In addition, just under half of the responses highlighted the value of this spectrum for the Internet of Things and the need to provide for technologies that will require higher-power and higher duty cycle limits (Network Relay Points). We have decided that there is now sufficient evidence for us to consider a license arrangement for these devices. Our decision to do this is based on the extent of industry effort being put into the on new ETSI standards to accommodate NRPs and the demand for NRPs expressed in consultation responses.

1.6 We will bring forward detailed proposals for authorising higher duty cycle NRPs in a separate consultation in Q2 2014, with a view to authorising these in Q4 2014.


Main documents

Supporting documents

Supporting documents

Supporting documents

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Responses

Responder name Type
Analogue_Devices.pdf (PDF File, 74.1 KB) Organisation
ARM.pdf (PDF File, 10.4 KB) Organisation
Energy_UK.pdf (PDF File, 114.9 KB) Organisation
ERM_TG34.pdf (PDF File, 10.5 KB) Organisation
GilliverMrJ.pdf (PDF File, 12.2 KB) Organisation
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