| In Brief Keeping on track The ECC's Spectrum Engineering Working Group has produced a Report aimed at giving practical guidance on improving the compatibility between public mobile networks (mobile phones and mobile data) and the 'GSM-R' system used by Europe's railways. These services are technically very similar and they use adjacent frequency bands, although the technologies used for public systems in these frequencies are now diversifying from the long-established GSM standard. GSM-R is a key element of many modern railway communication and modern signalling systems, especially on high-speed lines. As with any communications systems using adjacent bands, interference problems will usually occur in small areas around the base station transmitter of one service if the other service does not have its own transmitters reasonably close. Although the railway systems are "fail-safe", if interference occurs it can cause disruption to traffic. The ECC takes such scenarios into account in its pan-European frequency harmonisation measures e.g. in recommending 'guard-bands' between services in its channelling plans. However the planning and mitigation measures to avoid these localised interference problems are for national administrations to apply according to their requirements. Often the local operators apply a cooperation framework to identify and resolve problems between themselves. The ECC Report 162 (available at our website www.cept.org/ecc) considers the issue between public and GSM-R networks in more detail. It offers information and advice which we hope will be useful to ensure these two vitally important services coexist as effectively as possible. ECC/ETSI joint leaflet The ECC and ETSI have jointly published a brochure which provides an introduction to the regulatory environment in Europe for radio equipment and spectrum including useful information for newcomers. The brochure explains the regulatory system and the mechanisms and cooperation in place between the European Commission (EC), the ECC, and ETSI. It also addresses the Radio Spectrum Regulatory Framework within the European Union and CEPT. Industry will find practical guidance on how to place equipment on the European market and how to provide a new service which uses radio spectrum. An interactive version is available at: http://apps.cept.org/eccetsirel This version also provides a PDF download feature. Hardcopies are available from the ECC's permanent office, the European Communications Office, upon request at: [email protected]
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