1. Band III issues (Overview of the activities within Task Group 6/8: Use of the band 174 – 230 MHz) Ben Smith Radiocommunications Agency Netherlands BR Information Meeting on RRC-04/05 (Geneva, 18 – 19 September 2003)

2. Overview Band III issues (Chap.7) Why special attention for Band III ? Frequency usage of Band III and sharing between digital sound and television broadcasting –Physics: orders of magnitude –History: ST52/GE63 …. –Choices for planning: type of systems, rasters Sharing scenarios Open (technical) issues Future: flexibility, but how ?

3. What is so special about Band III ? Physics: 174-230 vs. 470-862 MHz for Band IV/V (or 1.7–1.3 vs. 0.64-0.35 m)

4. What is so special about Band III ? Long history of existing stations: -ST52 and ST61 for EBA –GE63 and GE89 for ABA Resulting in a mixture of systems and rasters

5. What is so special about Band III ? Different systems to be planned: television AND sound Bandwidths: analog TV(7 and 8 MHz), DVB-T(6,7 or 8MHz), T-DAB(1.75MHz) Different characteristics: minimum field strength, protection ratio

6. What is so special about Band III ? Different characteristics: minimum field strength Reception mode Location probability Minimum median equivalent field strength (dB(μV/m)) DVB-T T-DAB, Protection level 3 Code rate QPSK16QAM64QAM Fixed antenna0.952/336424837 Portable outdoor 0.70 0.95 2/3 50 56 56 62 61 67 48 54 Portable indoor Ground floor 0.70 0.95 2/3 58 65 64 71 69 76 56 63 Mobile0.992/360667158

7. What is so special about Band III ? Different characteristics: max. interfering field strength

8. Different characteristics: max. interfering field strength (1)

9. Different characteristics: max. interfering field strength (2)

10. Different characteristics: max. interfering field strength (3)

11. What is so special about Band III ? Different characteristics: max. interfering field strength

12. Sharing scenarios for sound and television 1)single service very easy planning, rigid, not satisfactory 2)partitioning of the band complicated, restricted flexibility, more efficient 3)mixed digital sound and television complex, most flexible, most efficient overall

13. Open (technical) issues Re-channeling ?? + simpler, looks more efficient -cost sometimes spectrum, many times money, complex introduction Propagation model ?? –Rec. 1546 and/or 370 based methods, incl. GE89 1546 stability after May 2004 ? continuity of existing rights only 1 model in a frequency band for all services, but may be different for different parts of the planning area

14. Future of Band III Prediction is difficult, especially about the future (of Band III) Therefore, lets try to build flexibility into the planning, even for system changes afterwards.