Notes from WGFM meeting - May 2020

As previously mentioned, despite the current restrictions members of the LPRA Council are still representing our members’ interests by participating in regulatory meetings remotely.

We thought you would be interested in the following notes from the most recent WGFM meeting.

WGFM#95 was the final meeting for the chairman, Thomas Weilacher of BNatzA, after eight years in charge.
 
Heated discussion surrounded work carried out by FM56 (railway spectrum) where attempts to place national restrictions on RFID in the 915MHz band in order to protect railway services in the new FRMCS band where opposed by many administrations. The associated report to the CEPT (in response to the EC Mandate on FRMCS) was passed to ECC. The chairman of FM56, Vincent Durepaire was reellected by acclamation, although since then Mr Durepaire has become the new chair of WGFM, and so there is now a vacancy.
 
The new chair of SRD-MG summarised the work to update Rec 70-03, including changes to: the main  body text; Annex 1 (non-specific SRD); Annex 12 (medical implants); new Annex 14 (non-beam WPT); and Annex A. There was some controversy over where WPT (Wireless Power Transfer) should fit into Rec 70-03 and SRD-MG was tasked to consider in more detail. Work to better define terms within Rec 70-03 are likely to follow as part of the 8th update work, and administrations indicated that they could support this investigative work on definitions being initiated as long as it was clear that this work would not impact the technical conditions defined in ERC/REC 70-03 (see below).
 
The 7th Update report to the permanent mandate on SRDs for the EC has been published (https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/dec_impl/2019/1345/oj) and work has begun on the 8th update cycle. It was noted that work associated with the separate UWB mandate might affect this work.
Some controversy surrounded discussion of UWB operation in the band 116-260GHz, where concerns were expressed at potential interference to passive satellite services operating in the RR 5.340 bands. No agreement was reached and the issue was passed to ECC.

A new system reference document (SRDoc) was submitted by the DECT Forum looking at operation in the band 1900-1920MHz, but it was noted that this band is being studied for use by UAS (drones) and rail, and that further consideration of DECT operation in the band would be considered once these studies have completed.

A further SRDoc looking at radiodetermination equipment for vehicular applications within the frequency range 77 - 81 GHz was considered and the meeting requested WG SE to initiate sharing/coexistence studies and asked SRD/MG to consider the request and to report their findings back to WG FM.

Finally, a further SRDoc looking at Security Scanners (SSc) within the frequency range 60 - 90 GHz was introduced proposing to update the regulation to accommodate two types of systems: (1) a 10 dBm indoor system operating in the 68 - 82 GHz range and (2) a 20 dBm indoor/outdoor system operating in the 71 to 75 GHz range. Studies were instructed to be started.

Next meeting, 8-12 June, 2020 (remotely)

As always we welcome your comments.

We will of course keep you full informed of all developments.