UHF2 realignment study - Ofcom Licensing

3 Regulatory Environment
3.1 Introduction
In this chapter, we review the current regulatory environment with a particular focus on the
following issues:
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Actions at an international level including the ITU, European Commission and
the Electronic Communications Committee (ECC).
The development of the UK UHF2 regulatory environment.
3.2 International Telecommunications Union (ITU)
At the recent ITU World Radio Conference 2007, it was agreed that the 450-470MHz (UHF2)
band would be a recognised IMT-2000 band from early 2009. However, it is understood that
Western European regulators would be unlikely to entertain the use of IMT-2000
technologies in the UHF2 band in the near term owing to the incumbent narrowband use
within the band.
However, in all cases, allocations must comply with internationally agreed allocations defined
under the auspices of the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) and detailed in
Article 5 of the ITU Radio Regulations, if the service concerned is to be protected from
interference from other services in neighbouring countries. This effectively means that from
2009, the UK would need to protect IMT2000 services, either in the UK or internationally
from harmful interference.
3.3 European Regulatory Framework
The last decade has seen a series of regulatory measures resulting in progressive changes
in radio spectrum management and policy in the European Union (EU) through a series of
regulatory measures. These measures enabled decisions to be taken on the availability of
radio spectrum for relevant EU policies, providing legal confidence, mechanisms for radio
spectrum policy development, transparency on spectrum usage and a consolidated
European position in international radio spectrum fora.
The key objective of EU radio spectrum policy is to optimise the use of spectrum, to
maximise its value for society and to avoid harmful interference. 6 Since February 2005, the
Commission has issued a number of policy statements aimed at promoting more flexible use
of spectrum and greater use of market approaches to spectrum management. The
Commission has emphasised the need for “a gradual but systematic liberalisation of radio
spectrum use”. As part of the i2010 initiative the Commission has presented a strategy for
advancing a single market for radio spectrum use in Europe. Recently, as part of the 2006
6 The Radio Spectrum Decision also refers to economic, safety, health, public interest, freedom of expression, cultural,
scientific, social and technical aspects of Community policies.
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