The management of the radio spectrum remains a key activity for Ofcom. This includes the management of the spectrum used by all Business Radio operational services.

These services are recognised as essential services that the UK needs to have in place.

The FCS and Ofcom have been working together for many years to ensure that these operational services continue to provide safety and security and other benefits the UK has become accustomed to.

The membership of the FCS represents the overwhelming majority of the business economic volume in the Business Radio Sector. As a result, the FCS is the voice of the industry. Our members serve many sectors of operational activity. Uses of Business Radio. Most of these sectors have at least some operations that need to work smoothly and are therefore supported by Business Radio.

The FCS Radio Spectrum policy in the BR sector is that radio spectrum remains allocated in accordance with international treaty. Users obtain their licences by application to Ofcom for an assignment.

Competition within the Business Radio sector is guaranteed by virtue of the fact that the sector has hundreds of economic operators. The FCS believes this to be generally effective. However, market-based spectrum assignment policies are viewed by the FCS as being inappropriate as there is no real control over who wins the licence. The emergency services, for example, might not get the radio spectrum they need if it were to be offered by auction.

Similarly, the cost of developing the very resilient systems into a market where the operating frequency is not known, well in advance, would result in products being made for countries other than the UK. Continuing the example, the emergency services might have to make do with a system that does not offer the same operational resilience.

Radio Spectrum for the High Quality Radiocommunications: The voice component (with some data) of the communications is carried over the UK’s dedicated radio spectrum. This spectrum allocation makes possible the achievement of very high resilience. The FCS is keen that the solutions that are provided remain high resilience and so strongly supports the maintenance of the existing radio spectrum allocations for Business Radio.

Wideband/Broadband Mission-Critical Data: Watch this space!

Enforcement of the Rules: The UK already has a body of regulation that is sufficient to ensure that the operational communications are effective and do not get interrupted by “Harmful Interference” or other problems. The position of the FCS is therefore that sufficient resource should be made available to the Ofcom Enforcement authorities to make sure this is the case.

Competition: Unlike other radiocommunications industries, the Business Radio industry is fragmented into hundreds of providers. Competition is therefore virtually assured in this market.

However, there is a serious down-side to relying solely on competition regulation in an environment where operational effectiveness is paramount. That is that since there are virtually no barriers to entry into the market, less technically competent entities may seek to supply systems that don’t work properly, can cause “harmful interference” to other users and which may even be unsafe. The consequences are always serious, sooner or later. These systems are often purchased by customers who were mis-lead by the claims made about these poor systems and were attracted by their lower initial cost without regard to their much higher overall cost and their under-performance.

The FCS takes the view that in the current regulatory environment, market entry by such entities is unstoppable. However, making available a range of resources and advice to the customers may alleviate this to some extent. The FCS has therefore produced Guidance on Site Engineering and Resilience. These can support a constructive discussion with the potential customer in advance of the sale.