Commission Implementing Decision (EU) 2026/291

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)Commission Implementing Decision (EU) 2021/1730^note allows for the effective transition from the legacy Global System for Mobile Communications – Rail (GSM-R) to the new Future Railway Mobile Communication System (FRMCS) for radio communications for railway operations.

(2)Recent developments in standardisation have shown that in the 874,4-880 MHz and 919,4-925 MHz frequency bands (hereinafter: ‘the 900 MHz frequency band’) additional or new use cases can be introduced based on frequency channels larger than 1,4 MHz and smaller than 5 MHz. Also, the use of the 900 MHz frequency band for narrowband (NB) channels can be extended to other NB technologies aside from the NB Internet of Things (NB-IoT) for the FRMCS. Also, the railway community proposed removing the channelisation of 1,4 MHz, which is limited to Long Term Evolution (LTE) technology.

(3)Deploying additional use cases in the 900 MHz frequency band will enable the FRMCS and the GSM-R legacy systems to be used concurrently within that band in the current infrastructure, facilitating cost-efficient deployment.

(4)The use of frequency channels smaller than 5 MHz with 5G technology will play a critical role for the migration from GSM-R to FRMCS and beyond, allowing new devices to be introduced onto the market.

(5)On 30 July 2024, pursuant to Article 4(2) of Decision 676/2002/EC, the European Commission gave a mandate to the European Conference of Postal and Telecommunications Administrations (CEPT) to develop harmonised technical and operational conditions in order to introduce use cases with the latest technology evolution for the FRMCS using the 900 MHz frequency band.

(6)In response to that mandate, on 28 June 2025, the CEPT adopted its Report 90. This provides harmonised technical conditions to introduce use cases with the latest technology evolution for FRMCS using the 900 MHz frequency band and allow all NB technologies in NB channels beyond NB-IoT.

(7)The CEPT Report 90 concludes that, based on the new options for bandwidths narrower than 5 MHz, the flexible use of 5G NR resource blocks and the use of other NB applications and technologies (currently limited to NB-IoT) can be applied for the 900 MHz frequency band. Therefore, it proposes amendments to the technical conditions set out by Implementing Decision (EU) 2021/1730 only as regards the 900 MHz frequency band. Implementing Decision (EU) 2021/1730 should therefore be amended accordingly.

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

HAS ADOPTED THIS DECISION: