THE FUTURE USE AND REGULATION OF THE 2.4GHz BAND
On the 14th of June a team of BMFA members travelled to Brussels to attend the European Commission (EC) for a meeting on the Europe wide use of the 2.4GHz band.
The meeting was called by the EC due to an application made by a private communications company to limit the use of the 2.4GHz band to the communications industry and so preclude it’s use for other applications, such as model control. The method by which the European Commission works would mean that if such an application were to receive no counter argument then there would be a very real chance that the commission would uphold the application and it could become legally binding. Obviously this position had to be vigorously opposed to ensure that any resulting legislation took into account the use of the band by model flyers throughout Europe.
It was reassuring to find that a substantial number of organisations representing model flying were present at the meeting. The representation from the UK alone consisted of, myself for the BMFA, Graham Lynn MBE for Europe Airsports and Chris Bromley FSMAE for the United Kingdom Radio Control Council in addition to Robin Donoghue from Ofcom and representatives from two UK importers of 2.4Ghz radio equipment. In all over forty participants attended the meeting, including representatives from model flyers associations from several EU states, the model trade, the communications industry and representatives of the Regulators from a number of member states.
The meeting was chaired by Mark Bogers of the EC who is responsible for the oversight of most of the European standards that equipment of this nature must comply with. In common with many of our European colleagues we submitted “position papers” in advance of the meeting, detailing our respective organisations views and stressing the importance we place on our access to the 2.4GHz band for our members. It was interesting to note that the main focus of all the papers submitted by the model flying representatives was the very real safety benefits available from the use of the band and the lack of any reported problems, or interference with any other users.
The move to restrict access to only one particular group was very quickly quashed as not being appropriate or practical and if followed could be construed as implementing a restrictive practice. The main focus of the meeting, which lasted for over 3 hours, became centred on the generation of a series of clear and concise guidelines to ensure that the wording of a revised standard would enable the model trade to continue to manufacture and sell equipment that operated on a non-interference basis with other users of the band.
The very positive conclusion of the meeting was that the revised Wide Band Data Transmission Standards should be as generic as possible allowing all users to work together “politely” (the term “politely” refers to the operating and access protocols of the equipment). ETSI were asked to amend the standards on this basis.
In practical terms the adoption of this revised standard by the EC will ensure that model control will not be precluded from using the 2.4GHz band across Europe. A very limited number of EU countries do have legislation in place that currently restricts usage of the band; however, the Regulators in those countries were asked to review this situation forthwith.
Fortunately for UK model flyers our regulator Ofcom had already taken a very positive stance and stated that they would not “backtrack” on the permissions issued in December 2006 (Ofcom worked very closely with the BMFA, the UKRCC and the trade at this time to achieve a workable solution), this stance was possible due to the fact that the 2.4GHz band is currently not considered as a “harmonised” frequency across Europe.
There is no doubt that this was an extremely important meeting to attend, and from a personal point of view it demonstrated to me the vital importance of the BMFA (along with related organisations) being ready and willing to make strong and determined representations, at the highest level, on behalf of the membership when required.
My thanks to Chris and Graham who also embarked with me on a 20 hour day to Brussels, in order to add their significant contributions in support of, and on behalf of, UK and European model flyers.
Manny Williamson
Development Officer