RD328 - ETNO Reflection Document commenting on the Draft ECC Report 152

ETNO strongly believes that any revision of the regulatory framework and in particular of the ERC Decision (00)07, that will constrain the radio relay network development in the 18 GHz band, should eventually be taken into account only after the completion of the ECC Report 003 revision and after detailed investigations on the compatibility issues.

The 18 GHz band is heavily used by the fixed service in Europe for the terrestrial network infrastructure. And the use of this band is growing. Considering that lower frequency bands are more and more saturated, it provides operators with a unique opportunity to implement very high capacity links with long hop length.

The ECC has recently decided to review the ECC Report 003 (ECC Report 003: “Fixed Service in Europe. Current use and future trends Post-2002” – Lisbon, February 2002). This task is foreseen to be completed in the months to come and will give the opportunity to see what the real Fixed Service situation is in the 18 GHz band and what the future trends are for it, with a view to the frequency plans adopted.

After the completion of this revision task, it will be possible to understand whether there’s room for uncoordinated Fixed Satellite Service terminals and, if so, the necessary compatibility studies required before any modification to the existing regulatory regime is decided.

As a consequence, ETNO strongly believes that any revision of the regulatory framework and in particular of the ERC Decision (00)07, that will constrain the radio relay network development in the 18 GHz band, should eventually be taken into account only after the completion of the ECC Report 003 revision and after detailed investigations on the compatibility issues.