Ofcom Confrims Threat to MPT1329 Telemetry on 458MHz

Alarm bells were set ringing, when during the last Ofcom Business Radio Interest Group (BRIG) it was stated that the Ofcom UHF Spectrum Review of the spectrum between 420-470MHz,  first announced back in April 2014, will be looking at the consequences of disbanding the long standing 458MHz licence free band that is heavily used in particular by the UK’s Water Industry.

The announcement has followed years of delay in resolving on-going interference issues between scanning telemetry user in the UK and on the continent of Europe. Ofcom proposes re-farming the spectrum reversing the base transmit and receive frequencies of its licenced scanning telemetry allocations however 458MHz is right in the way. This uncertainty comes hot on the heels of widespread interference reports by users caused by portable traffic lights which already had undimmed confidence in the band.

An Ofcom spokesman assured the Low Power Radio Association that the 433-434MHz licence free allocation would remain as this was already aligned with Europe. For more details of this story please contact Ofcom directly or why not join the LPRA who are looking for support from industry about formation of a migration strategy.  www.lpra.org