EUROPE

To see a brief summary of a country's WiFi rules in the box below, put your mouse inside the country's borders on the map at left.

For more detailed information about radio regulation in a particular country, click on the country in the map, or use the "Country pages" selector in the left column. For places not visible in the map (e.g. Cyprus, Monaco, etc.), use the "Country pages" selector

Market for devices using license-exempt spectrum

European Union

EFIS - the ERO Frequency Information Service - provides access to allocation information from 26 European countries in an integrated, searchable form.
Final Report: Study on Legal, Economic and Technical Aspects of 'Collective Use' of Spectrum in the European Community, Mott MacDonald Ltd., Aegis Systems Ltd., IDATE, Indepen Ltd. and WIK Consult (November 2006), 131 pages in English. Chart at right shows the growing market value of license-exempt devices in Europe.
"Directive 1999/5/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 9 March 1999 on radio equipment and telecommunications terminal equipment and the mutual recognition of their conformity" - the "R&TTE directive" established the principle that in radio, individual licensing is only justified for reasons related to the effective/efficient use of the spectrum, prevention of harmful interference or matters relating to public health.
CEPT's Electronic Communications Committee has Project Team SE24 dealing with short-range devices. As of mid-2009, its chairman is Marc Le Devendec. The ECC's entire work program is available online as an HTML table.
"Commission Decision of 9 November 2006 on harmonisation of the radio spectrum for use by short-range devices," Official Journal of the European Union L 312/66 (11 November 2006), pages 66-70: "The purpose of this Decision is to harmonise the frequency bands and the related technical parameters for the availability and efficient use of radio spectrum for short-range devices so that such devices may benefit from 'Class 1' classification under Commission Decision 2000/299/EC..."
"Harmonised regime for exemption from individual licensing for the use of radio spectrum," Revised Recommendation ERC/REC 01-07, European Conference of Postal and Telecommunications Administrations (CEPT), 2004:
"...In some instances licensing is an appropriate tool for administrations to regulate the efficient use of the radio spectrum. However administrations and especially users will benefit from a more deregulated system of authorising the use of radio spectrum. There is a general agreement that when the efficient use of the radio spectrum is not at risk and as long as harmful interference is unlikely, the use of radio frequencies can be exempted from a licence... This Recommendation lists harmonised criteria for the administrations to decide whether an exemption of individual licensing should be applied..."
"Implementation of ERC/REC 01-07 (Harmonised regime for exemption from individual licensing for the use of radio spectrum)," - chart showing which EU countries have or have not implemented this recommendation.
ERC Recommendation 70-03 (Tromsø 1997 and subsequent amendments) Relating to the Use of Short Range Devices, European Radiocommunications Office, February 2002.
Status of ERC Recommendation 70-03 Relating to the Use of Short Range Devices, European Radiocommunication Office - a detailed, current overview of band allocations for licence-exempt devices in Europe.
"Report from CEPT to the European Commission in response to the Mandate to Develop a strategy to improve the effectiveness and flexibility of spectrum availability for Short Range Devices (SRDs) - Final Report," CEPT Electronic Communications Committee, Report 14 (July 2006):
How new bands are created for short-range devices in CEPT member countries

"...Member States may... restrict the putting into service of SRD radio equipment only for reasons related to the effective and appropriate use of the radio spectrum, avoidance of harmful interference or matters relating to public health. It is therefore clear that money cannot be gathered from SRD spectrum because it does not fall within the 'Authorisation Directive'...

"Greater flexibility can also be provided by the removal of, where appropriate, the individual ERC/ECC Decisions for SRDs.... The EC's development of a SRD Framework Decision may undermine the usefulness the individual ERC/ECC Decisions for SRDs may once have had...

"One of the features of spectrum use in a number of countries outside of the CEPT is the application of a general power and/or power density limit below which use by SRDs is taken out of the usual regulatory process. Details on this are provided in Section 10 of this report. It is a conclusion of this Report that CEPT be tasked to investigate the possibility of developing such a limit for CEPT countries...

"In addition, there is a need for consideration of possible generic low power limits across the spectrum. In the same way that there will be troughs to protect sensitive allocations, there can be chimneys where spectrum use is less sensitive, for example, ISM bands. These general limits can be used to introduce a new class of SRDs. This might be called 'Ultra Low Power narrow and wide band for very short range SRD applications.'..."
"National implementation of ERC/DEC/(98)25, 26 and 27 on PMR 446" - Personal Mobile Radio - 446 MHz: as of June 2004, all European countries have authorised PMR 446 for short-range, license exempt "walkie-talkie" analog voice communication except for Monaco, Poland (individual licenses required), Romania (only for businesses, individual licenses required, some channels not available), Russia (introduction of PMR 446 is being considered) and Turkey (exemption from licensing being considered, but individual licenses now required). Eight FM channels; maximum power output 500mW; radios may gateway to the Internet via EQSO. See the PMR 446 page in the Wikipedia.
Wikipedia's "Low-power communication device" page briefly describes license exempt devices used around 433-435 MHz and 868-870 MHz throughout Europe.
"Commission Recommendation on the Harmonisation of the provision of public R-LAN access to public electronic communication networks and services in the Community" (2003/203/EC - 20 March 2003): public R-LAN access in the 2.4 and 5 GHz bands should be licence-exempt in all EU member states.
"Harmonisation of Radio Licensing," ERC Report 61 (12 February 2004), European Conference of Postal and Telecommunications Administrations (CEPT).
"European Spectrum Management Principles," by Patrick S. Ryan, Journal of Computer and Information Law, Volume XXIII, pages 239-285 (2005)
"Frequency Management Reform: The European Implications" by Frank Greco - workshop presentation at the University of Tilburg, (Netherlands, May 2003). Greco shows the relationships among the following institutions involved in spectrum policy-making in this helpful diagram:
- The Radio Spectrum Policy Group (RSPG) develops concepts and gives policy advice to the European Commission.
- Spectrum Interservice Group (SIG) - all European Commission services with an interest in spectrum access participate.
- The Radio Spectrum Committee (RSC) is responsible for the implementation of technical measures (but not licencing, which is a national-level task).
Mr. Greco recently sent us this more detailed flow-chart of the EU's spectrum policy-making decision procedures.
Radio Spectrum Decision 676/2002/EC.
The Information Society Directorate's Radio Spectrum Policy page.
During 2007, the European Radiocommunications Office's Working Group on License Exempt Commons (RA LEC) will gather data about the procedures for radio license exemption in the 46 CEPT countries, with the aim of producing a draft proposal for a common CEPT framework for license exemption by October 2007. Meanwhile, ERO's Short Range Device Maintenance Group performs technical studies on which the Commission's unlicensed device policies are based.
"Permanent Mandate to CEPT regarding the annual update of the technical annex of the Commission Decision on the technical harmonisation of radio spectrum for use by short range devices," 5 July 2006.
"Software Defined Radio: Initial Requirements for Regulator, Operators and Spectrum Management," by the IST-SCOUT project team (October 2002).
Presentation of the WIP project - a Commission funded effort to optimize and solve problems related to all-wireless user-friendly ad hoc Internet access mesh networks.
"Europe researches wireless car-to-car communications," by John Blau, The Standard, 17 December 2004.
"ECC Decision of 12 November 2004 on the harmonised use of the 5 GHz frequency bands for the implementation of Wireless Access Systems including Radio Local Area Networks (WAS/RLANs)," ECC/DEC/(04)08.
"EC to develop guidelines on RFID," by Richard Thurston, ZDNet UK, 16 March 2007: "Speaking at the CeBIT trade event in Hanover, Germany, on Thursday, information society commissioner Viviane Reding said the Commission would draft rules later this year to amend EU e-privacy legislation to take account of RFID. A stakeholder group will be formed first to advise the Commission on the development of its RFID policy. It will report back to the Commission by the end of 2008 on any reform to European laws that it thinks is needed... Reding also said that the Commission would not tie users of RFID into regulation. 'When I come to CeBIT people ask, "What regulation are you proposing today"? I have no regulation, we must not over-regulate RFID. But we must provide the industry with legal certainty,' she said..."
"Ultra-wideband is set for standards," by Harry Yeates, Electronics Weekly, 16 April 2006: "The European Electronics Communications Committee (ECC) has approved the use of UWB devices in the range from 6 - 8.5 GHz, subject to the technical limits stipulated by the FCC in the US, without requiring the use of interference mitigation techniques. The separate national regulators now have to approve the recommendation... This means Europe, the US and Japan now have a common chunk of the FCC's original 3.1 - 10.6 GHz spectrum available, so the same products can theoretically be sold into all three regions..."
"Commission Decision of 21 February 2007 on allowing the use of the radio spectrum for equipment using ultra-wideband technology in a harmonised manner in the Community" (2007/131/EC). This must be implemented in all EU member states by 21 August 2007.
"Presentation of the European UWB Cluster to the Radio Spectrum Committee" by Heinz Luediger, Walter Hirt, et al., 3 March 2004 - for basic historical background. The UWB Cluster consisted of EU-funded research projects. They met with the RSC because CEPT's UWB coexistence studies were "inconclusive," there was no "jointly accepted interference models/definitions" and European regulators were unwilling to issue experimental licenses to advance the state of UWB knowledge.
"ICT drives 50% of EU growth, says Commission's annual report on the digital economy," EU press release (30 March 2007) accompanying "Press pack: i2010 Annual Report 2007" and country-by-country highlights.
"Broadband and i2010: The importance of dynamic competition to market growth," by Richard Cadman and Chris Dineen, Strategy and Policy Consultants Network Ltd., 21 February 2005:
- "There is a clear, 40%, correlation between the level of broadband take-up and competition between access modes, identified as: incumbent’s own ISP; resellers of incumbent’s bitstream; LLU; cable; and other modes.
- "However, there is a much stronger, 72%, relationship between the rate of change in the levels of market concentration and the rate of change in broadband take up as at June 2004.
- "Taking this analysis one step further, and looking at the relationship over time, we see a stronger relationship still. We have calculated an elasticity of the relationship between change in market concentration and change in take-up for thirteen EU countries and found that for every 1% decrease in market concentration there is a 3% increase in broadband take-up.
- "Our model suggest that 71% of the variation between the rate of change in broadband subscribers in the EU13 can be explained by the rate of change in market concentration..."
- "It is no surprise, therefore, that the fastest growing broadband markets, Luxembourg and the UK, have amongst the sharpest declines in market concentration nor that Sweden, where growth is slow, has seen a slight rise in concentration over the period Jan 2002 - June 2004..."
"The digital divide in Europe," by Christophe Demunter, Eurostat 38/2005 (12 October 2005).
"EU To Propose Single Europe Telecom Regulator End-Oct," by William Echikson, Dow Jones Newswires (via Cellular News, 31 May 2007): "The European Commission will propose at the end of October creating a single Europe-wide telecoms regulator, the Information Society and Media Commissioner Viviane Reding said Thursday. Reding previously has expressed interest in strengthening the European Union's role as a telecoms watchdog. But officials say this is the first time she has given a specific timing for her reform and confirmed that she will ask for vastly expanded powers... The move underlines Reding's determination to shake up Europe's telecommunications market and enhance her reputation as a consumer advocate..."

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