EFIS ECO Frequency Information System Thomas Weber, ECO – Dublin, 13 July 2011

1. EFISECO Frequency Information SystemThomas Weber, ECO – Dublin, 13 July 2011 European Communications OfficeThomas Weber, Frequency Management

2. Summary • EFIS management structure • Quick history • Overview of information available in EFIS • Examples • Summary

3. EFIS management structure CEPT EC ECC ECO WG FM EFIS MG (est 2002)

4. Quick history • 2001 ECC Decision ECC/DEC(01)03* on EFIS • 2002 Establishment of the ‘EFIS MG’ (EFIS Maintenance Group) • 2005 Mandate to CEPT on the use of EFIS for publication and access to spectrum information within the Community • 2006 Acceptance of final report from CEPT in response to EC Mandate • 2007 Commission Decision of 16 May 2007 on harmonised availability of information regarding spectrum use within the Community (2007/344/EC)* • 2010/11 2 amendments of the annex 2 of the ECC/DEC(01)03 application terms • 2011 ECA database merged into EFIS * Replacing the 1997 ERC Decision ERC/DEC/(97)01 on the publication of national tables of frequency allocations

5. Quick History II • On 31 January 2002 the ECO launched a new frequency information systemcalled EFIS. EFIS is available to the public on the Internet either via the ECO website or directly under www.efis.dk . • EFIS contributes to the CEPT policy objectives of harmonisation and transparency as well as the European Union policy objectives laid down in the Decision of the Council and European Parliament on Radio Spectrum Policy. In 2005, the European Commission issued a mandate to CEPTon the feasibility for EFIS to develop into a European portal for spectrum information.  The response from CEPT is given in CEPT Report 11. • EC Decision 2007/344/EC on harmonised availability of information regarding spectrum use within the European Community was published on the 16th of May 2007 and entered into force on 1st January 2008. In accordance with this EC Decision Member States shall input into EFIS information about the use of radio spectrum on their territory. • In EFIS you can search for and compare spectrum utilisation across Europe (allocations, applications, radio interfaces, rights-of-use) and find related information such as documents about CEPT activities and national or international regulations. • With EFIS, ECO aims at providing a valuable service to all parties with an interest in spectrum utilisation. • EFIS also includes information on other Regions. In addition, AFIS (an Asian EFIS) is under development within the APT.

6. EFIS - in short • EFIS MG: A number of CEPT administrations take active part in the work of the group • EFIS data: Currently, 36 countries (incl. all EU Member States) publish frequency information in EFIS • EFIS software: EFIS-3 went live 19 Dec ’08 and is constantly improved. Current version is EFIS 3.4.1, launched in April 2011. There is a constant process of amending the software and adding new features. • EC-ECO: Regular contact on an ad hoc basis Report on EFIS to each RSC meeting * EFIS stats: For one month (May ’11): Total no of hits: ca. 50.000, total no of visits: 7.000

7. EFIS – the data sets

8. EFIS Statistics (I)

9. EFIS Statistics (II)

10. Allocations/Applications • For most countries this information is extracted directly from the NTFA (National Tables of Frequency Allocations). It is usually updated once or twice a year, with updates being reported to ECO and to the EFIS MG at its meetings. The Commission Decision 2007/344/EC stipulates that this information shall be updated twice a year by Member States. The ECA and ITU tables in EFIS are maintained by the Office. • Allocations and applications show far fewer discrepancies in extent of use than before and are actually fully used nowadays by the administrations as well as EFIS database users. This also makes EFIS a good basis for analysis about the actual spectrum usage. Users of the EFIS database can search and/or compare both allocations, applications, and allocations + applications in EFIS.

11. Compare Applications

12. Allocations/Applications II • A next step to enhance this functionality is to also implement information from official questionnaires (e.g. online collection of information) about actual usage and market details in order to support detailed spectrum investigations. • This information normally comes from industry and/or administrations in response to official ECC/WGFM questionnaires. Recent examples (e.g. 863-870 MHz or on the GPR/WPR national implementations) have demonstrated that it is possible to successfully collect this information via ECO. • An online implementation is considered easy to implement in EFIS and can to some extent also support the evaluation of the responses. However, creation and overall evaluation of the questionnaires take considerable efforts. • The collection process of the information also always needs expert knowledge about the best channels and sources from where to collect the information from the market.

13. Example:Review existing 863-870 MHz • ECC WGFM adopted at their September 2010 meeting a questionnaire on the use of the frequency band 863-870 MHz by Short Range Devices (SRD) • In total, 76 responses were received at the European Communications Office (ECO). • 24 responses representing > 1 million devices (e.g. one responder stating that it was rather 10 million instead of 1 million devices); • 14 responses representing > 100 000 devices; • 25 responses representing less than 100 000 devices (but more than 1 000): • 10 responses representing less than 1 000 devices (but more than 100); • 1 response indicating less than 100 devices. • -> per annum; in 863-870 MHz, device population increases • -> only those who responded (real numbers must be higher)

14. Example 863-870 MHzMain market sectors • All kinds of (smart) Metering: > 10 million • Home automation (incl. all kinds of remote controls) > 10 million • Alarms (incl. intrusion sensing) > 10 million • Automotive > 5 million • Industrial, including sensors in industry > 2 million • Audio > 2 million • RFID > 100 000 readers with millions of tags • Social/personal alarms > 100 000 units annually • The above is only to show the approximate weighting of the respective application field as represented in the responses. It is also to note that many answers indicated that they see a strong growth of their respective wireless device sector. Such statements were made across all the above application fields.

15. Example: 863-870 MHzCharacteristics & Explosion of Apps Spectrum Access Applications Modulation bandwidth

16. National Radio Interfaces • The normative requirements for the information on NationalRadio Interface Specifications in Annex 1 of the EC Decisionare as follows: • Member States shall provide either by reference to the relevant standard or descriptive text and any comments as necessary the following parameters: • 1. channelling; • 2. modulation/occupied bandwidth; • 3. direction/separation; • 4. transmit power/power density; • 5. channel access and occupation rules; • 6. authorisation regime; • 7. additional essential requirements according to Article 3(3) of Directive 1999/5/EC; • 8. frequency planning assumptions. • All other information provided is voluntary and purely informative.

17. Search radio interfaces

18. National Radio Interfaces • Additional valuable information specific to a given country to be included in EFIS could be: • Positive restrictions, i.e. if a country allows more bandwidth or power or has less stringent medium access rules for spectrum sharing than defined for the European harmonised usage of a radio application in either an ECC or EC Decision; • Differences in the application of the regulations. One example is PPDR where countries in EU/EFTA themselves decide whether radio equipment is under the scope of the R&TTE Directive or specific usage regulation. Users are services or agencies, recognised and defined as such by the national administration, responsible for public safety; • Different tuning ranges mandated in various countries, e.g. for PMR or PMSE equipment; • Differences in antenna requirements for FS usage throughout Europe. • It was also noted that the TCAM correspondence group on class 1 equipment subclasses is in a process of creating new subclasses based on the RIS implementation template for all frequency utilisations under an EC Decision. Similar to the inclusion of the EC Decisions in the EFIS database, it is to include the class 1 subclass documentation in EFIS.

19. Rights-of-Use Information • The intentions of Annex 2 of EC Decision were to focus on the bands of major economic interest or significance. The normative requirements for the information on rights of use as defined in the EC Decision are: • Information on rights of use may be limited to frequency bands used for the provision of electronic communications services which are tradable in accordance with Article 9.3 of Directive 2002/21/EC or which are granted through competitive or comparative selection procedures pursuant to Directive 2002/20/EC. For relevant frequency bands Member States shall provide in accordance with the requirements of Directive 95/46/EC and Directive 2002/58/EC and Community and national rules on business confidentiality, the following information: • 1. identity of the radio frequency right holder; • 2. expiry date of the right or, in the case where there is none, the expected duration; • 3. geographic validity of the right by at least providing the information whether the right is local (i.e. one station), regional or nation-wide; • 4. an indication of whether or not the right is tradable. • All other information provided by the regulatory authority in EFIS is voluntary and purely informative. It should be noted that the contact provided in EFIS for the right of use information can also be a contact point from the administration. • Specific national legislation or jurisdiction may make it difficult for a country to provide in specific cases more detailed information such as the exact location of a transmitting station or identities of licence holders and their related affiliations.

20. Implementation Examplesin EFIS • Example 1: Right of Use information from Denmark • As of May 2011 Denmark has uploaded information about all individual licences. There are more than 25,000 licences provided to the EFIS system on a data set-by-data set basis, i.e. more than 25,000 entries. • Example 2: Right of Use information from the United Kingdom • The United Kingdom provides in EFIS the link to the national Wireless Telegraphy Register (http://spectruminfo.ofcom.org.uk/spectrumInfo/licences). The advantage of this solution is that it provides more detailed information and functionality. For example, one could search after licence types (i.e. applications) or in a specific geographical area. • Both examples are considered as successful demonstrations of how the requirements from Annex 2 of the EC Decision can be fulfilled.

21. Some recent and ongoing Improvements in EFIS • Amendment of the allocation and application selection windows, • Change of the history update to show only one country per date and section, • improvement of radio interface showing, • Easier finding of related documents (frequency ranges, radio interfaces and applications are ”connected”), • New comments fields in radio interfaces and right of use section, ‘Short comments’ fields are now all larger (consequently, related xml upload should work when having longer comments), it’s also noted that the larger fields are increasingly used by administrations. • New info page with info from non-CEPT countries added. • Export to CSV files improved • Adding of EC Spectrum Decisions (by Sept ’11).

22. Summary • Quality and depth of information provided by administrations is good and getting better. EFIS capabilities are constantly enhanced and can be further enhanced. • Detailed spectrum inventories are currently performed by ECO based on a combination of detailed questionnaires AND a search in EFIS when requested by the EC, ECC or one of its Working groups (Recent examples: 863-870 MHz, UHF RFID, GPR/WPR, FS usage, 169 MHz). • Market information from industry and administrations could be added in EFIS to provide a more comprehensive picture of the real utilisation for spectrum inventories of individual frequency bands (e.g. online questionnaires, definition of additional data fields or document types to be added by administrations and ECO).

23. Questions ?? • Thank you for your attention!