Minutes of meeting - Stakeholders - Ofcom

Business Radio Interest Group (BRIG)
Minutes for the BRIG Meeting held on 24th October 2012, Riverside House
Attendees
Name Organisation Name Organisation
Paul Jarvis Ofcom Simon Parsons JRC
Kevin Delaney Ofcom Chas Griffin JRC
Malika Greene Ofcom Stephie Barnett IRS
Communications
Stephen Lynch Ofcom David Hosie Audiolink
Sidiqur Rahman Ofcom Brian Back Radio Data
Networks
John Pahl Transfinite Paul Jenkins Radiocoms
Tim Cull FCS Sam Hunt FleetComm
Roy Pierce Procom Rupert Cazalet Airwave Solutions
David Tripp CSS Peter Wickson Airwave Solutions
Laurence Mears Atkins Paul Bergin Arqiva
Ross Davison Atkins Anthony Dunne Arqiva
Michael Dowson Network Rail Tom Mockridge Motorola
Adrian Streeter London Buses Kevin Braithwaite Motorola
Ian Hart TFL Jens Toobe Kenwood
Rob Beauchamp Target Consultancy Tom Connolly Ofcom
1 Minutes and Actions from previous meeting
No comments were received on the content of the minutes.
Actions from previous meeting
AP1 Ofcom to discuss with industry the possibility of producing a guidance note
on the issue of receiver sensitivity
Ongoing
Update SPG will review this again
AP2 BRIG to give thought as to how the released Mid Band spectrum should be
packaged
Call for Input response period closed 12 th October. Twenty nine responses
received covering PMR including TETRA, Maritime, Amateur Radio,
Licence Exempt use and Citizen’s Band Radio
2 Updates from Business Radio
Band III in Light Licences
Business Radio reported that they are receiving feedback from industry that
they would like Band III spectrum to be incorporated into the light licences,
in particular, the Suppliers licence. This will require a variation to the
existing licence as well as any new applications. Business Radio will

assess the resource impact and timing for this to be actioned. Consultation
will be required before this change can be implemented. Ofcom sees no
major hurdles in this.
The group was informed of recent customer experience of using Band III for
construction use. The customers were very happy with the quality of the
communication for crane operation and there were generally no interference
issues. Equipment is available and so the spectrum can be utilised.
FM49 update
Ofcom slides 5 – 7 refer. Malika Greene was asked to provide a brief
summary of the key points raised by FM49 for the BRIG members
Spectrum returned to Business Radio post Olympics
Ofcom slide 8 refers.
Kevin Delaney highlighted that the spectrum being returned to Ofcom post
Olympics was not significant as most games spectrum was borrowed from
MoD and Home Office. The UHF2 channels being returned will be looked at
for best use rather than just allocated to the existing pool of channels for
BR.
3 Industry News
Tim Cull advised BRIG of the increasing demand for digital, growth was at
20% per annum. FCS feels that the societal value of spectrum should be
considered in allocations. Also more Ofcom resource should be deployed to
the congestion issues.
To aid spectrum efficiency Ofcom should request additional technical data
in addition to the current process such as the type of use and the number of
mobiles.
BR12 will be on the 15 th November 2012 in Birmingham, Ofcom will be
presenting and have a licensing surgery afterwards.
4 Updates from Spectrum Engineering and Enforcement
Ofcom slides 11 – 17 refer
Consultancy Service offering
Spectrum Licensing are offering a new technical advisory service for
providing technical spectrum planning beyond the standard service offered
for assessing and granting licences. The service is intended to enable the
stakeholder to make their own decision about their spectrum licence
requirements. Any subsequent application will be dealt with in the same
licensing process adhering to Ofcom statutory duties. Ofcom will charge on
the basis of prescribed daily colleague rates.
Renewals Management
Key goals are reducing revocations and increasing revenue retention,
improving spectrum utilisation, changing customer behaviour and improving
synergy between Ofcom licensing and enforcement. Over past three years
there has been a marked improvement. Major changes have been made to
fulfilment service including branded envelopes and documentation. Ongoing
strategy is to improve email take-up as preferred communication method

and seek customer feedback on why payment by white-mail is less
successful than by email.
There was a concern where a dealer the apporach was slightly heavy
handed and wasteful of Ofcom resource by having a field-engineer visit the
customer‘s premises. A possible cause could be that different contacts
receive different licensing letters. Another issue was reference numbers
beween the online application and the actual licence. This had been
reported in the 2011 customer survey and was on the licensing radar of
needed system changes. Another issue was incorrect or missing email
contact details submitted online against those recorded against the licence.
This would be investigated.
One of the suggestions was to send a copies of the renewals and intention
notices to the radio supplier in addition to the payment/licence contact. The
legal responsibility is with the licensee and educating customers about the
importance of the licence was still a key inititaive being tackled by the proactive
customer calling within the Renewals Management campaign. The
numbers not paying had been reduced from 13% to

Propagation models: compare P1546-3 and P1812-2 and the perceived
advantages of P1812 due to the use of clutter and terrain data. Transfinite
will model different scenarios for systems. BRIG members will be asked to
nominate systems that Ofcom can use for comparison between the
propagation models.
High resolution map info will be used to model dense urban environments to
make best use of P1812 including LIDAR data for urban use.
Pixel size: Transfinite will look at the benefits of changing pixel sizes (50m,
200m, 1km) and the impact on computational time. The group discussed
that maybe using different models for onsite/wide-area systems may be of
benefit. Ofcom replied that we will only use one assignment methodology
and as such the scale of benefit to on-site and wide area systems is to be
considered.
MASTS review: Transfinite will look at the algorithm and all its key
variables to identify and levels of sharing that could be permitted.
Results will be shared with the Group at the next BRIG.
7 Stakeholder Events
Slide 25 of the Ofcom presentation refers. Details were given of
forthcoming Open Days and Business Radio Interest Group meetings.
8 Any Other Business
Next meeting of the Business Radio Interest Group will be Riverside House,
room 1.01, Thursday 31 st January, start time is 10.30
Action Points
Item Where Description Who?
AP1 FM49 update Provide summary of potential
impact on candidate bands
such as 450 – 470 MHz
Malika Greene
AP2 Follow up email Ofcom process for specific Tom Connolly /
revocation cases
Stephie Barnett