ComReg Spectrum Strategy & European Common Allocations Table

ComReg Spectrum Strategy

On the 1st of July ComReg Published its Spectrum
Management Strategy Statement for 2008 to 2010. It is
available as document No 08/50 on the ComReg website at
www.comreg.ie. In March last a draft of this strategy
was published was published and public responses were
sought. The IRTS submitted a detailed response at the
time. As a result of this, the final version just
published now includes mention of the self-training and
technical investigations aspects of experimental and
amateur radio. We also succeeded in having included in
the Strategy the upgrading of the amateur allocation at
7100 to 7200 kHz from secondary to primary status from
March 2009 as agreed at WRC'03 as well as the general
release of the 70 MHz band and access to channels in
the region of 5 MHz. These latter two issues were
agreed between ComReg and the Society quite some time
ago and have been held up pending the settling ofsome
administrative details by ComReg. We hope these
facilities will be made available in the near future.


European Common Allocations Table

In February last as a result of an initiative by IRTS,
ComReg raised at the CEPT Working Group on Frequency
Management WGFM, the question of the inclusion of a
mention of allocations to the amateur service in the
region of 70 MHz in the European Common Allocations
table ECA. There had been no mention of these despite
the fact that an increasing number of countries were
giving operating facilities to the amateur service in
that part of the spectrum.

This initiative has now yielded results as the revised
ECA published by the European Radiocommunications
Office ERO which is open for consultation until the
16th of August includes a new footnote EU9 which reads
as follows "In a growing number of CEPT countries,
parts of the band 70.0 to 70.5 MHz is also allocated to
the Amateur service on a secondary basis". The IRTS has
sent a detailed submission to the ERO urging that this
footnote be retained. This footnote will assist
Societies in CEPT countries, which are reluctant to
grant allocations at 70 MHz because there is no mention
of it either in the ITU Radio Regulations or the
European Common Allocations Table.