WGRR, 3-6 May 1999, Antalya, Turkey.

The Working Group considered the following subjects:

Conformity Assessment matters

The implementation situation of ERC/DEC/(97)10 has improved slightly because Iceland has also implemented the Decision. Austria, Finland, UK, Norway and Denmark have now issued certificates. The ERO has developed a real database with search tools in use. The industry has become more interested in using the new facility.

Work on standardised Application and Test Report Forms had been restarted. The draft combined Form for GSM Base Stations presented by RR9 was approved by WG RR for publication by the ERO.

RR9 is still editing input from ETSI/ERM/RP-08 concerning Forms for the Avalanche Beacon standard ETS 300 718, which will be presented for approval in the next meeting.

RR9 had studied what would be a suitable type approval standard for Meteor Burst Communication Mobile Terminals. Measurements had already been performed by KTL Arnhem using EN 300 113. The results showed that it complied with the applicable parts of the standard. Therefore RR9 proposes the use of this standard for both ERC/REC 01-06 and ERC/DEC(97)10 mutual recognition regimes.R& TTE directive

Report from AHG A

The meeting was informed about the progress of the work of the Ad Hoc Group on Market Surveillance. The scope of the R&TTE Directive indicates that exchange of information should be done as far as possible via electronic means. Furthermore, the R&TTE directive demands notification procedures for non harmonised radio equipment.

The ad hoc group has prepared a business plan, called Einstein, for such an electronic information exchange system. This plan contains the proposed feasibility study, the public tender procedure (if necessary), the development of the system and the operation and maintenance of the system. It is proposed that the feasibility study will be performed by the ERO. The progress report of the ad hoc group was already forwarded to the ERC for consideration.

The plan was discussed in the first TCAM meeting. The proposal to start a feasibility study was not supported by some member states for various reasons (too ambitious, and not sufficiently discussed with all involved parties, exceeds in some cases the competence of the market surveillance authorities, the proposed study was too focused on radio equipment).

Despite these comments from Member States, the Commission was of the opinion that the ERO should be requested to undertake the feasibility study as soon as possible. The cost of the study will probably be paid by the Commission.

Co-operation between national market surveillance authorities

In order to create better co-operation between national market surveillance authorities responsible for carrying out tasks related to the R&TTE Directive the ad hoc group has proposed a market surveillance platform for national market surveillance authorities. Other parties such as European industry, importers, dealers and also non-EU market surveillance authorities have the possibility to join this co-operation.

During the first TCAM meeting the Member States were not in the position to support the proposed platform because of various reasons (too focused on radio equipment, a broader scope than just surveillance tasks was favoured). The subject was deferred to the 2nd TCAM meeting, which is scheduled 6-7 July 1999.Consequences of the R&TTE Directive

The Ad Hoc Group had prepared a document, which provides an overview of the consequences for EU administrations in implementing the Directive and also briefly considers the effects on other outside bodies.Workshop

The Commission has indicated that they will organise a R&TTE workshop for all interested parties in the Autumn 1999.

Report from AHG-B

The Chairman of AHG-B reported on the progress of his group. In the first TCAM meeting the proposals of AHG-A, AHG-B, AHG-D and ETSI OCG/TG6 had been introduced. The Commission had promised to prepare responses for the next TCAM meeting. Also the national delegations were requested to make proposals on possible working groups for future preparatory work under TCAM. Another task for the Member States was to check the correctness of information on the national regulations that the Commission had collected. The only decision taken was the approval of the Rules of Procedure. Any decisions on the proposals of the AHGs are unlikely to be made until the third TCAM meeting 26 and 27 October.

In the final report of AHG-B to TCAM the proposals concerning firstly the scope of art. 6.4 notification and secondly the publication of the national radio interfaces were mentioned. On the first matter there were presented two proposals because the meaning of the term "frequencies the use of which is not harmonised in the EU Member States" is still a controversial issue. The question which equipment should be notified was not fully clear and might need further clarification in the near future.

The second issue, the publication of radio interfaces is time-critical for the proper and timely functioning of the Directive.

Consequences of the R&TTE directive for the non-EEA countries and the CEPT output documents

Based on the proposal from WG RR the ERC agreed to create a new Task Group to asses the need for enhanced co-operation and the necessary changes to the existing and planned ERC deliverables with respect to the R&TTE directive. A progress report of the work was noted.

A document concerning the impact of the R&TTE Directive on the current and future output documents of the ERC was discussed. The document categorised the ERC Decisions and provided some views on which kind of Decisions will be affected by the R&TTE directive. The requirements of the non-EU countries should also be taken into account when Decisions are being withdrawn or modified. It was suggested to add additional information for each Decision about the countries that have or will soon implement the Decision. That might be a good indicator to provide priorities in the work plan if the Decisions or Recommendations have to be modified.

The document gave rise to a debate about the future role of standards and the way standards should be referred to in ERC Decisions. It was suggested that standards should in future be referred to in an indicative way or should be a description of the radio interface. This information could be included in the national frequency tables.

In order to safeguard the frequency parameters it was further suggested that administrations should participate in the ETSI work on standards and that the delegations to TCAM should be broadened with radio experts.

It is the intention to detail the document further, take into account the comments/remarks by the meeting and broaden it with a study of Recommendations and (possibly) Reports. Such an updated document will be presented at the next WG RR meeting after further discussions within TG2.

Maritime issues

The chairman of RR2 reported the following activities:

At the previous meeting of RR2 there had been considerable participation also from CPG/PT4 and SE31. The meeting had agreed on a common approach regarding the maritime VHF channels (Ap S18). The common approach is based on the following principles:

The preparation of WRC-2000 agenda item 1.7 (maritime and aeronautical HF bands) is continuing;

The work concerning practical arrangements of GOC and ROC examinations is continuing and output can be expected at the beginning of 2000.

RR2 follows the discussions in IMO COMSAR concerning the influence of close-down of coast stations on the general communications required by GMDSS;

RR2 follows the implementation of the recent Directive relating to modifications of the minimum level of training of seafarers;

RR2 follows the implementation by CEPT Administrations of the WRC-97 Resolution concerning ITU ship station particulars.

The previous meeting of WG RR adopted for public consultation the draft Recommendation on the harmonised content of certificates issued by administrations for the GOC and ROC to facilitate the mutual recognition of these certificates. During the consultation one comment had been received. After discussion the meeting concluded that the comment should be seen as information regarding the national implementation of the Recommendation. The Recommendation was therefore finally adopted.

Licensing and free circulation

The Chairman of RR6 reported on the progress of the group.

The next RR6 meeting will prepare a draft Decision on Licence Exemption of Receive Only Satellite Terminals also called Receive Only Earth Stations (ROES) since there are still CEPT administrations issuing a licence for this equipment.

Draft ERC Decision on Exemption from Individual Licensing of Satellite User Terminals (SUTs)

A draft Decision for licence exemption of Satellite User Terminals (SUTs) was introduced which proposed that Satellite Interactive Terminals (SITs) and SUTs have the same technical parameters and therefore should be treated on an equal footing in future ERC Decisions.

It was further stated that it would be difficult to understand for various reasons why a Decision on licence exemption for harmonisation in the 30 GHz band should be made in advance of an equivalent Decision on licence exemption for 14 GHz VSAT harmonisation.

A draft version of an WG SE Report was received during the meeting. This report would apply to VSATs, SNG, SUTs and SITs and possibly also cover any future VSAT-type of systems. The recommendations of this report contain the technical criteria for possibilities to exempt VSAT, SNG, SIT and SUT from licensing, however a number of administrations indicated they wanted to discuss the report first internally, before being able to take a position regarding possible ERC Decisions.

After discussion it was agreed that - pending the finalisation of the WGSE report and national discussions - it was too early to approve any Decision and that this should be postponed to the September meeting. Meanwhile co-ordination between WG RR, WG SE, ETSI and possibly the ICAO would be necessary.

Luxembourg made the statement that it was disappointed about the will of the two Working Groups SE and RR to solve, in a timely manner, certain problems given to them by the ERC.

RR decided to try to finalise the Decisions at the next meeting and present them to the ERC meeting of November.

RR6 was asked to produce the following Decisions for the next RR meeting:

- Licence exemption from individual licensing of SITs;
- Licence exemption from individual licensing of SUTs;
- Licence exemption from individual licensing of Ku band VSATs.

Draft ERC Decision on Exemption from Individual Licensing of Inmarsat -B Satellite terminals for land mobile applications

Draft ERC Decision on Exemption from Individual Licensing of Inmarsat- M4 terminals for land mobile applications

Draft ERC Decision on free circulation and use of Inmarsat-M4 terminals for land mobile applications

Draft ERC Decision on free circulation and use of Inmarsat-B terminals for land mobile applications

These Decisions were approved by WG RR and will be forwarded to the ERC for approval for public consultation.

Draft ERC Decision on free circulation and use of mobile terminals operating within the Meteor Burst Communications System

WG RR concluded that finalisation of the free circulation Decision is not possible without the technical conditions of the use of MBC terminals and that WG FM should be requested to develop a CEPT Decision or Recommendation concerning the frequency band 39 - 39,2 MHz (Meteor Scatter Applications) and the technical conditions of use.

It is expected that - provided FM and SE will be able to deliver the required Recommendation or Decisions - RR6 will finalise the work before the WG RR September meeting.

PMR

The report of the Ad Hoc Group was introduced. The document reflects the current practice regarding PMR licensing in a large number of European countries.

The AHG was disappointed that not all administrations had replied to the questionnaire (yet).

The AHG work was also discussed in the EU Licensing Committee; the Commission will take an active interest in the progress of this work and they questioned that there was not more widespread participation from EU Member States in the AHG.

Much progress has already been made and a further report will be put to the next meeting of WG RR in September.

The delegate of the Italian administration announced that his Administration is currently reviewing their licence fees and he anticipated that the fees will be considerably lower in the future.

The following was concluded:

The Licensing Committee (LC) will be informed about the progress of the work by the Chairman of WG RR.

Satellite issues

One Stop Shopping for satellite networks

The Chairman gave an overall view of the work of the SIG so far and the submission of a Decision on the establishment of a regulatory database (encompassing satellite as well as networks and services) to the next ERC and ECTRA meeting.

Some administrations raised concerns about the funding of the database and suggestions were made that industry should pay. Others said that as this was not done for existing databases, fees should not be imposed here.

Regarding the electronic application form concerns were raised with respect to the need to solve the problem of electronic signature, the fact that some annexes have to be submitted in paper form and the number of questions in the application form.

It was explained that these problems would have to be solved during the next half year. Regarding the number of questions in the form it was noted that smart software would guarantee that applicants would only see those questions which are relevant for the licence in the country they applied for and not all the questions. For the same reason it was no problem to apply the OSS for ROES (Receive Only Earth Stations).

Draft ERC Decision on the Establishment of a Regulatory Database of licensing regimes for telecommunication networks and services

The following comments were made:

The question was asked if there really was a need for a separate database and why direct links to national databases could not be made. This item had been discussed in the SIG OSS SAT and it was concluded that the advantages of a central database outweighs the disadvantages. One entity would be responsible for the format of the database. Implementation could be done much quicker.

It was noted that the existing VSAT Decision (97)07 will be maintained until the last administration that signed the VSAT Decisions has also signed the new one, which also encompasses VSATs.

Some Administrations announced they were willing to commit themselves to the new database Decision.

These Decisions will be sent to the next ERC and ECTRA meetings for approval.

Report of the satellite Chairmen’s meeting

The report from an informal meeting of Chairmen of different CEPT groups dealing with satellite matters was discussed. Goals of this meeting were to:

Some of the proposals, relevant for WG RR were:

The report will be discussed at the next ERC and ECTRA meetings. Some concerns were raised with respect to the relation to the (future) satellite work of Working Groups.

Report of PT ECTRA Sub-group on the establishment of a subset of authorisation conditions for S-PCS

RR noted the work of this new group whose scope is limited to consider authorisation conditions for S-PCS <3 GHz.Spectrum Pricing

The progress report of RR8 was presented. The Annex of the document contains a first draft of the to be produced ERC Report on the practical applications of spectrum pricing. RR8 plans to present a draft Report for approval at the next WG RR meeting.

The Project Team was requested to take up the item of satellite fees and provide information on the background of the differences in fees.

The Project Team would send a letter to administrations with the request to update the Annex with national positions in ERC Report 53. She would also request contact persons on the item of auctions and administrative pricing within each administration.

Enforcement

Chairman of RR11 on Enforcement highlighted a number of activities going on in the PT.

A questionnaire related to Enforcement/Market Surveillance was sent out to all CEPT Administrations The results of the questionnaire can be found in the report named: "Analyses of the questionnaire related enforcement and market surveillance on (radio) equipment to CEPT countries".

WG RR agreed publication of the ERC Report on Inspection and training (ERC Report 66).Radio Amateurs

It was announced that the US had implemented CEPT T/R 61-01. ERO had already updated the Recommendation T/R 61-01 on the web site.WRC-2000

In addition to the WRC-2000 related matters dealt under the report of RR2 the meeting considered a proposal from Germany, Poland and Finland to include an additional item for the preliminary agenda of WRC-2002/3, to consider the development of arrangements to facilitate the global circulation of radio communications terminals. After discussion and several modifications the document was adopted.

A discussion took place, as to whether or not a future radio conference should investigate the need to modernise the regulatory provisions in the current Radio Regulations. The vice chairman of RR was asked to prepare an input document for the next WG RR meeting.

Use of E-mail groups within the ERC family

A proposal for a trial with the use of E mail groups within the ERC family had been approved by the ERC and ERO Council.

It was agreed that a newsgroup for Enforcement issues and a newsgroup on regulatory issues for future WRCs will take part in these trials. The system should be in general operation by the end of May 1999.

ERO ReportsMrs Jeanty informed the meeting that the draft final reports on the study on Conformity Assessment procedures in the CEE countries and Free circulation arrangements within Regional Telecommunications Organisations were sent to the administrations a number of weeks ago. Some administrations had already sent comments and further comments could be taken into account until the comments of the European Commission were received.

The Legislation study was stopped some time ago, as mentioned at the previous meeting, and the Working Group should decide whether to update the information and publish it or to leave the document as it is now.

The meeting decided to update the information and come back to the question how it should be published and how it should be kept updated after this has taken place.

Date and place of the next meeting

The next meeting will take place in Marbella (Spain) on 14 - 17 September 1999.

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