Paris, 14 June 2012
ARCEP held a public consultation from 15 December 2011 to 20 January 2012 on a draft version of planned amendments to the regulatory framework governing the use of frequencies by amateur radio service stations.
This consultation was on a draft decision that is to replace ARCEP Decision No. 2010-0537 of 4 May 2010 which stipulates the technical terms of amateur radio service stations' use of frequency bands.
The proposed changes to existing provisions are as follows:
- the draft decision aims, first, to lift certain restrictions attached to the use of the 50.2-51.2 MHz frequency band by radio installations belonging to the amateur service, and to permit the entire 50-52 MHz band to be used by amateur radio operators, in Region 1 (i.e. Metropolitan France, Reunion and Mayotte), in a secondary fashion. These changes would bring into effect the provisions contained in the Order of 23 June 2011, which introduces changes to the national frequency allocation table;
- the second aim of the draft decision is to allow amateur radio operators to employ digital communication systems, at a time when digital transmission technologies are evolving the world over, while also ensuring that the technical terms of France's regulatory framework comply with the international framework defined by ITU Radio regulations;
- lastly, the wording of the draft decision is intended to more closely reflect the provisions set out in the Radio regulations concerning the use of frequencies by amateur radio service stations and by the amateur satellite service.
There were 26 contributions to the public consultation, come from both associations and individual amateur radio operators.
The draft decision was also submitted to the Electronic communications advisory committee (Commission consultative des communications électroniques) for feedback on 27 April 2012.
This means that all of the consultations that were held to help finalise the draft decision are now complete.
It is in this context, then, that today ARCEP is publishing the contributions to the consultation, along with a summary of the responses (all in French).
Stakeholders reacted positively to draft decision submitted to consultation. Their responses did nonetheless result in several adjustments that help clarify the text, without altering the content of the provisions.
The draft decision resulting from this consultation process was notified to the European Commission on 31 May.
Once the three months allotted for the notification procedure with the European Commission have elapsed, ARCEP plans on adopting this decision which will come into effect once it has been published in the Official Journal (Journal officiel) of the French Republic - after having been officially approved by means of order from the Minister responsible for electronic communications.
Linked documents
Summary of the public consultation (pdf - 425KB) (pdf - in French only) 
Contributions from stakeholders (zip - 3.41MB) (zip - in French only)