Commission Implementing Decision (EU) 2022/172

Contents

THE EUROPEAN COMMISSION,Having regard to the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union,Having regard to Decision No 676/2002/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 7 March 2002 on a regulatory framework for radio spectrum policy in the European Community (Radio Spectrum Decision)^note, and in particular Article 4(3) thereof,Whereas:

(1)Short-range devices are typically mass-market or portable products or both which can easily be taken and used across borders. Differences in spectrum access conditions may prevent their free movement, increase their production costs and create risks of harmful interference with other radio applications and services due to unauthorised use. Commission Decision 2006/771/EC^note harmonised the technical conditions for use of spectrum for a wide variety of short-range devices which, as a result, are subject to a very light regulatory regime and to no more than a general authorisation under national law.

(2)Commission Implementing Decision (EU) 2018/1538^note harmonised the technical conditions for the use of the 874-876 and 915-921 MHz frequency bands by technically advanced radio frequency identification (‘RFID’) solutions as well as ‘Internet of Things’ applications based on networked short-range devices in data networks. In those frequency bands, the sharing environment is different compared to that applicable under Decision 2006/771/EC, therefore, a specific regulatory regime is required.

(3)While the 873-874,4 MHz and 918-919,4 MHz bands are not harmonised for usage of the global system for mobile communications for -railway (‘GSM -R’) s by Union law or by a Decision of the European Communications Committee (‘ECC’), these frequency bands may be used for this purpose on a national basis subject to a national decision in line with the Radio Regulations of the International Telecommunication Union. Therefore, where harmonised technical conditions would not be sufficient to protect the use of these bands for a national extension of GSM for Railways (‘E-GSM-R’), concerned Member States are allowed to subject the use of short-range devices to additional requirements without impacting the harmonised technical conditions for access to spectrum for short-range devices within the bands. Such restrictions, where needed in a particular Member State, should notably ensure that coordination between spectrum users takes place in order to enable geographic sharing between E-GSM-R on the one hand and RFID devices and networked short-range devices on the other.

(4)The harmonised use for railway mobile radio of the paired frequency bands 874,4-880,0 MHz and 919,4-925,0 MHz, which are adjacent to sub-bands 874-874,4 MHz and 917,4-919,4 MHz harmonised for short-range devices by this Decision, is subject to Commission Implementing Decision (EU) 2021/1730^note. The coexistence between short-range devices in the 874-874,4 MHz and 917,4-919,4 MHz frequency bands and railway mobile radio in the adjacent frequency bands 874,4-880,0 MHz and 919,4-925,0 MHz was assessed in Report 74 of the European Conference of Postal and Telecommunications Administrations (‘CEPT’).

(5)In accordance with Article 1(4) of Decision No 676/2002/EC, Member States retain the right to organise and use their radio spectrum for public order and public security purposes and defence, and remain free, in that context, to protect the existing and future use of the 874-876 and 915-921 MHz frequency bands and of adjacent bands for military and other public security and public order purposes while pursuing the aim of making available the minimum harmonised core bands for networked short-range devices in accordance with the technical conditions defined in this Decision and in compliance notably with the general principles of EU law.

(6)In order to reflect technological and market developments in the area of short-range devices, a permanent mandate was issued in July 2006 to the CEPT’ pursuant to Article 4(2) of Decision No 676/2002/EC, to update the Annex to Decision 2006/771/EC. The work carried out on the basis of the permanent mandate (seventh update cycle) was also the basis for Implementing Decision (EU) 2018/1538 which provided additional spectrum for short-range devices within the 874-876 and 915-921 MHz frequency bands.

(7)On 16 July 2019, the Commission issued its guidance letter for the eighth update cycle of Decision 2006/771/EC. In response to the permanent mandate and in accordance with that guidance, the CEPT submitted to the Commission its Report 77 on 5 March 2021 which contains several proposals for the amendment of Implementing Decision (EU) 2018/1538. Those include the amendment of definitions in relation to short-range devices, in order to avoid ambiguity and ensure consistency with Decision 2006/771/EC. They also propose re-assessment of some technical parameters for categories of short-range devices covered by Implementing Decision (EU) 2018/1538. CEPT Report 77 constitutes the technical basis for this Decision.

(8)Short-range devices operating within the conditions set out in this Decision should also comply with Directive 2014/53/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council^note.

(9)Implementing Decision (EU) 2018/1538 should therefore be amended.

(10)The measures provided for in this Decision are in accordance with the opinion of the Radio Spectrum Committee,

HAS ADOPTED THIS DECISION:

Article 1 #

(1)Decision (EU) 2018/1538 is amended as follows:Article 2 is replaced by the following:‘Article 2For the purposes of this Decision, the following definitions shall apply:

(1)“short-range device” means a radio device which provides either unidirectional or bidirectional communication and which receives and/or transmits over a short distance at low power;

(2)“non-interference and non-protected basis” means that no harmful interference may be caused to any radio communication service and that no claim may be made for protection of these devices against interference originating from radio communication services;

(3)“category of short-range devices” means a group of short-range or networked short-range devices that use spectrum with similar technical spectrum access mechanisms or based on common usage scenarios;’;

(2)The Annex is replaced by the text in the Annex to this Decision

Article 2 #

This Decision is addressed to the Member States.

Frequency bands with corresponding harmonised technical conditions and implementation deadlines for short-range devices

—Member States must allow the usage of spectrum up to the transmit power, field strength or power density given in this table. In accordance with Article 3(3), they may impose less restrictive conditions, i.e. allow the use of spectrum with higher transmit power, field strength or power density, provided that this does not reduce or compromise the appropriate coexistence between short-range devices in bands harmonised by this Decision;

—Member States may only impose the ‘additional parameters (channelling and/or channel access and occupation rules)’ identified in the table, and shall not add other parameters or spectrum access and mitigation requirements. Less restrictive conditions within the meaning of Article 3(3), mean that Member States may completely omit the ‘additional parameters (channelling and/or channel access and occupation rules)’ in a given cell or allow higher values, provided that the appropriate sharing environment in the harmonised band is not compromised.

—Member States may only impose the ‘other usage restrictions’ identified in the table and shall not add additional usage restrictions unless the conditions mentioned in Article 3(2) apply. As less restrictive conditions may be introduced within the meaning of Article 3(3), Member States may omit one or all of these restrictions, provided that the appropriate sharing environment in the harmonised band is not compromised.

The following table specifies different combinations of frequency band and category of short-range devices (as defined in Article 2(6)), and the harmonised technical conditions for spectrum access and implementation deadlines applicable thereto.

General technical conditions applicable to all bands and short-range devices that fall in the scope of this Decision:

Terms used:

‘Duty cycle’ is defined as the ratio, expressed as a percentage, of Σ(Ton)/(Tobs) where Ton is the ‘on’ time of a single transmitter device and Tobs is the observation period. Ton is measured in an observation frequency band (Fobs). Unless otherwise specified in this technical annex, Tobs is a continuous one hour period and Fobs is the applicable frequency band in this Annex. Less restrictive conditions within the meaning of Article 3(3), mean that Member States may allow a higher value for ‘duty cycle’.

Band no	Frequency band	Category of short-range devices	Transmit power limit/field strength limit/power density limit	Additional parameters (channelling and/or channel access and occupation rules)	Other usage restrictions	Implemen-tation deadline
1	874-874,4 MHz^note	Non-specific short-range devices^note	500 mW e.r.p.Adaptive Power Control (APC) required, alternatively other mitigation techniques which achieve at least an equivalent level of spectrum compatibility	Techniques to access spectrum and mitigate interference that provide an appropriate level of performance to comply with the essential requirements of Directive 2014/53/EU shall be used. If relevant techniques are described in harmonised standards or parts thereof the references of which have been published in the Official Journal of the European Union under Directive 2014/53/EU, performance at least equivalent to these techniques shall be ensured.Bandwidth: ≤ 200 kHzDuty cycle: ≤ 10 % for network access points^noteDuty cycle: 2,5 % otherwise	This set of usage conditions is only available for data networksAll nomadic and mobile devices within the data network shall be controlled by a master network access point ^note, ^note, ^note, ^note	1 July 2022
2	917,4-919,4 MHz^note	Wideband data transmission devices^note	25 mW e.r.p	Techniques to access spectrum and mitigate interference that provide an appropriate level of performance to comply with the essential requirements of Directive 2014/53/EU shall be used. If relevant techniques are described in harmonised standards or parts thereof the references of which have been published in the Official Journal of the European Union under Directive 2014/53/EU, performance at least equivalent to these techniques shall be ensured.Bandwidth: > 600 kHz and ≤ 1 MHzDuty cycle: ≤ 10 % for network access points^noteDuty cycle: ≤ 2,8 % otherwise	This set of usage conditions is only available for wideband short-range devices in data networksAll nomadic and mobile devices within the data network shall be controlled by a master network access point ^note, ^note, ^note	1 July 2022
3	916,1-918,9 MHz^note	Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) devices^note	Interrogator transmissions at 4 W e.r.p. only permitted at the centre frequencies 916,3 MHz, 917,5 MHz, 918,7 MHz	Techniques to access spectrum and mitigate interference that provide an appropriate level of performance to comply with the essential requirements of Directive 2014/53/EU shall be used. If relevant techniques are described in harmonised standards or parts thereof the references of which have been published in the Official Journal of the European Union under Directive 2014/53/EU, performance at least equivalent to these techniques shall be ensured.Bandwidth: ≤ 400 kHz	^note, ^note, ^note	1 July 2022
4	917,3-918,9 MHz	Non-specific short-range devices^note	500 mW e.r.p.Transmissions only permitted within the frequency ranges 917,3-917,7 MHz, 918,5-918,9 MHzAdaptive Power Control (APC) required, alternatively other mitigation techniques which achieve at least an equivalent level of spectrum compatibility	Techniques to access spectrum and mitigate interference that provide an appropriate level of performance to comply with the essential requirements of Directive 2014/53/EU shall be used. If relevant techniques are described in harmonised standards or parts thereof the references of which have been published in the Official Journal of the European Union under Directive 2014/53/EU, performance at least equivalent to these techniques shall be ensured.Bandwidth: ≤ 200 kHzDuty cycle: ≤ 10 % for network access points^noteDuty cycle: ≤ 2,5 % otherwise	This set of usage conditions is only available for data networksAll nomadic and mobile devices within the data network shall be controlled by a master network access point^note, ^note, ^note, ^note.	1 July 2022
5	917,4-919,4 MHz^note	Non-specific short-range devices^note	25 mW e.r.p.	Techniques to access spectrum and mitigate interference that provide an appropriate level of performance to comply with the essential requirements of Directive 2014/53/EU shall be used. If relevant techniques are described in harmonised standards or parts thereof the references of which have been published in the Official Journal of the European Union under Directive 2014/53/EU, performance at least equivalent to these techniques shall be ensured.Bandwidth: ≤ 600 kHzDuty cycle: ≤ 1 %,	This set of usage conditions is only available for short-range device in data networksAll nomadic and mobile devices within the data network shall be controlled by a master network access point ^note, ^note, ^note	1 July 2022

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Article 2#

Frequency bands with corresponding harmonised technical conditions and implementation deadlines for short-range devices

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