WGRR  12-16 February 1996, Sofia, Bulgaria.

Warning! It is only possible to give a brief outline here of relevant discussions and conclusions.

A list of standards which was prepared by project team RR9 to be implemented via ERC Decisions was developed in connection with the draft general ERC Decision (95) 04 on the procedures for mutual recognition of type approval of radio equipment and radio terminal equipment.

Within the list priorities were indicated as follows:
- PMR standards: ETS 300 113, I-ETS 300 219, ETS 300 296, ETS 300 390 and ETS 300 341.
- Maritime radio: ETS 300 065, ETS 300 066, ETS 300 162, I-ETS 300 225, ETS 300 373, IEC 1097-1, ETS 300 338, ETS 300 372.
- Equipment operating on harmonised frequencies: ETS 300 135, ETS 300 328.
- Short Range Devices: I-ETS 300 220, I-ETS 300 330, I-ETS 300 440.

At the RR meeting ETS 300 396-2 (TETRA air interface) was added to the list.

The standard ETS 300 086 is already implemented via ERC/DEC(95)02.

The meeting discussed the type approval requirements for receivers and transmitters with very low powers. The reason for this was that several administrations received communications from the European Commission indicating that radio receivers and transmitters with a power below 0,5 W should not be the subject of type approval. Type approval is in general the rule for this kind of equipment within the administrations. The different policies with regard to this is causing difficulties for, among others, ETSI TC RES.

It was concluded that type approval of receivers remains necessary in some specific cases.

It was decided to have a position paper prepared by RR9 containing the following aspects: for which is the EMC conformity assessment alone sufficient; which receivers are subject also to other requirements; what would be the type approval procedure.

The relevant approval regime would in future be included in the ERC Decision implementing the standard.

Type approval of land mobile satellite service (LMSS) terminals

A Recommendation providing an interim type approval regime for LMSS terminals was provisionally approved. The intention of this Recommendation is to have a simple type approval regime for these terminals until such time that Common Technical Regulations would be finalised or the draft ERC Decision (95) 04 on the procedures for mutual recognition of type approval of radio equipment and radio terminal equipment can be applied because a Decision implementing the standard has been approved.

The procedure of the Recommendation is that CEPT administrations will accept the type approval given by any CEPT type approval authority to equipment complying with the essential requirements in the relevant ETS following type testing at an accredited test laboratory and bearing a mark as specified in the Recommendation.

According to the Rules of Procedure of the ERC, the Recommendation will be circulated to the ERC administrations for comments in writing.

A Recommendation providing an interim type approval regime for VSAT and SNG terminals was provisionally approved. The intention of this Recommendation is to have a simple type approval regime for these terminals until such time that a Common Technical Regulation would be finalised or the draft ERC Decision (95) 04 on the procedures for mutual recognition of type approval of radio equipment and radio terminal equipment can be applied, because a Decision implementing the standard has been approved.

The procedure of the Recommendation is that CEPT administrations will accept the type approval given by any CEPT type approval authority to equipment complying with the essential requirements in the relevant ETS following type testing at an accredited test laboratory and bearing a mark as specified in the Recommendation.

According to the Rules of Procedure of the ERC, the Recommendation will be circulated to the ERC administrations for comments in writing.

Free circulation of land mobile satellite services (LMSS) terminals

A Recommendation providing for Free Circulation of LMSS terminals (excluding S PCS) was provisionally approved. The intention of the Recommendation is to replace the temporary system specific Recommendations ( T/R 21-09, T/R 21-11, T/R 31-02) and the Recommendation on the Circulation Card (T/R 21-07) with one permanent Recommendation. Although this equipment is also covered by ERC Decision (95)01 on the free circulation of radio equipment in CEPT member countries it is expected that it will take some time before this Decision is implemented by all or the vast majority of CEPT administrations during which time the system specific Recommendations might have expired. Therefore this Recommendation, developed by RR7, was approved by RR.

The main elements of the Recommendation are: one Recommendation covering all LMSS equipment (although implementation only for certain systems is possible) the possibility to extend the procedures to cover also non-CEPT countries the Recommendation should supersede the old system-specific Recommendations and T/R 21-07. that it is possible to add new Annexes, covering specific systems to the Recommendation.

According to the Rules of Procedure of the ERC, the Recommendation will be circulated to the ERC administrations for comments in writing.

Administration of maritime accounting

An ERC Report covering this subject, prepared by RR2 was approved by the Working Group. This Report proposes as a long term objective to investigate the complete withdrawal of radio administrations and telecommunications administrations from their present involvement in the maritime accounting systems. For the short term the Report proposes to seek solutions for administrations who already want to terminate their involvement now.

The Report will be published as ERC Report 34 Concerning Accounting Authorities

It will be proposed that further work in this area will be done by ECTRA, which is the competent body for this.

EC Directive 96/2/EC on mobile and personal communications deals among other things with the publication of allocations of frequencies designated for mobile and personal communications. The ERC and ECTRA in their comments to the draft of this Directive, were of the opinion that an ERC Decision on the publication of frequency tables of all radiocommunications services would be a more appropriate instrument, since it would cover all 43 CEPT administrations and all services.

The Working Group RR was therefore tasked with preparing such a Decision and it established for this task project team RR10 which is expected to prepare a proposal before the end of the year.

Next Meeting of the RRWG

The next meeting of the RRWG will take place in the Czech Republic during 27-31 May 1996. The following agenda items are currently scheduled to be considered.

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